I-Corps Alum CatenaBio Raises $2.35 Million

CatenaBio, a groundbreaking biotech spun out of the labs of Jennifer Doudna and Matt Francis at UC Berkeley, announced a successful close of its seed extension round with a raise of $2.35M.

The seed round was backed by existing investors California Innovation Fund, Civilization Ventures, and Pioneer Fund, and brought in new investors LongeVC, Freeflow Ventures, Caffeinated Capital, and the BrightEdge – American Cancer Society reflecting increasing confidence in Catena’s disruptive approach, early pipeline, and world-class team.

“We’re thrilled to have such an incredible group of investors recognize Catena’s groundbreaking potential to transform the conjugate therapy market,” says CEO Marco Lobba, Ph.D. “The additional funds will enable accelerated buildup of our exciting pipeline of Multi-Payload Conjugates.”

Catena specializes in creating never-before-possible therapeutic structures by enabling multiple kinds of payloads of any size and complexity. Catena’s initial focus areas include first-in-class ‘multi payload conjugates’ called MPCs™. With the seed extension, Catena plans to accelerate development of its lead asset while launching scale-up activities with leading CROs and continuing efforts in support of its existing BD partnerships with Biotech and Pharma collaborators.

“CatenaBio is rapidly escalating the effectiveness and usefulness of antibody-drug conjugates. ADCs are one of the most dynamic fields when it comes to fighting age-related diseases and are being actively explored across multiple vectors, including for oncology treatments,” said Sergey Jakimov, founding partner at LongeVC. “With this funding, CatenaBio is well-positioned to continue their work and rapidly bring the next generation of highly targeted, potent, multi-payload therapeutics to market.”

According to Prof. Marc Lippman, MD, at the Georgetown University Department of Oncology and Internal Medicine “Catena’s approach to MPCs offers one of the most exciting potential improvements in treating solid tumors. Combination therapies have been a standard in Oncology for decades, and Catena’s solution allows for the unique production of targeted combination therapies beyond anything in the clinic today. I’m excited to see these therapies advance to benefit patients as quickly as possible.”

Catena’s extended runway with the seed extension sets the perfect stage for generating additional compelling data in support of a Series A later this year.

https://bakarlabs.berkeley.edu/biotech-startup-catenabio-raises-2-35-million-in-seed-extension-round/