UF Innovate Ventures has contributed to a series B round for StrideBio, partially based on research into gene therapies at University of Florida.
StrideBio, a US-based gene therapy developer exploiting research undertaken at University of Florida (UF) and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, closed an $81.5m series B round yesterday backed by the former institution’s venture fund UF Innovate Ventures.
Pharmaceutical firm Novo and Northpond Ventures co-led the round, which also attracted biopharmaceutical companies Sarepta Therapeutics and UCB as well as pharmaceutical firm Takeda and life science real estate developer Alexandria Real Estate Equities.
Pontifax, Octagon Capital, CaaS Capital and Hatteras Venture Partners filled out the round. UCB, Takeda and Alexandria invested through their respective vehicles UCB Ventures, Takeda Ventures and Alexandria Venture Investments.
Founded in 2015, StrideBio is working on engineered adeno-associated virus-based gene therapies that it hopes will overcome current limitations of gene therapy. It is initially focused on genetically-defined central nervous system and cardiovascular disorders.
The cash will allow the spinout to advance its pipeline into the clinic, including four proprietary assets, to drive further platform development and to bolster its manufacturing capacity.
Karen Hong, partner at Novo’s investment affiliate Novo Ventures, and Shaan Gandhi, director at Northpond, have joined the board of directors in conjunction with the round.
StrideBio raised $15.7m in a series A round in 2018 led by Hatteras, with participation from UCB Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments and Takeda Ventures. The spinout had already secured $1m in seed financing in 2017, with Hatteras reportedly supplying the full amount.
