Viking Global Investors is an investment firm that uses fundamental analysis to select investments across industries and geographies. It is a global investment firm managing more than twenty billion in capital across long-short equity and long-only strategies. The firm was established in 1999 and is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, with offices in New York City, Hong Kong, and London.

Viking Global Investors

8VC enables industry transformation. In a wave of creative destruction, they believe emerging platforms will replace the decades-old technology infrastructure behind many industries, promoting greater innovation and prosperity.

Allen & Company is a family-owned investment and advisory firm. The firm advises on M&A and capital raises, with an emphasis on the technology, media, healthcare, and sports sectors. Allen & Company was established in 1932 and is headquartered in New York, United States.

Allen & Company

BoxGroup is an early-stage investment fund that invests in technology companies. The fund aims to invest in the consumer, enterprise, fintech, healthcare, life science, and marketplaces industries at the earliest stage, as early as pre-seed round and as late as Series A. It supports companies based on a conviction in the team and seeks entrepreneurs working at the beginning of movements in existing markets or new markets yet to be created and with visions to create the next generation of category-defining businesses.

BoxGroup

SV Angel is a service organization, investing in founders who share these values. They support entrepreneurs in building lasting companies by assisting at key inflection points and leveraging networks to help them propel their businesses forward.

SV Angel

Illumina is an innovative technology and revolutionary assays aiming the analyze genetic variation and function. These studies will help make the realization of personalized medicine possible. With such rapid advances in technology taking place, it is mission-critical to have solutions that are not only innovative, but flexible, scalable, and complete with industry-leading support and service. As a company that places a high value on collaborative interactions, rapid delivery of solutions, and prioritizing the needs of its customers, they strive to meet this challenge. Illumina's innovative, array-based solutions for DNA, RNA, and protein analysis serve as tools for disease research, drug development, and the development of molecular tests in the clinic. David R. Walt, Satnam Alag, Larry Bock, and John Stuelpnagel co-founded Illumina in San Diego, California in 1998.

Illumina

Samsung Securities provides personalized asset management service to individual investors

Samsung Securities

Mantra Bio

Mantra Bio develops a novel next-generation, targeted therapeutics based on its proprietary platform for engineering Targeted Exosome Vehicles (TEVs). The Company's REVEAL platform, which integrates computational and wet biology, and automation, leverages the diversity of exosomes to enable the rational design of therapeutics directed at a wide range of tissue and cellular targets. Mantra Bio has also established a scalable biomanufacturing process and related technologies to ensure this new class of therapeutics is reproducibly made at high purity.

Mantra Bio is a biotechnology company specializing in the development of targeted therapeutics using its proprietary exosome engineering platform, REVEAL. The platform integrates computational biology and bench lab automation to design precision therapeutics directed at various tissue and cellular targets. Mantra Bio's technology capitalizes on exosomes, which are natural nanoparticles secreted by cells for intercellular communication. The REVEAL platform combines AI/machine learning and synthetic biology to rapidly design, test, and optimize exosome therapeutics. This process involves designing therapeutic exosome candidates in silico, screening them for potency and pharmacokinetics, and optimizing them through a dry lab-to-wet lab development cycle.

Mantra Bio Raises $9 Million in Series A-2 Financing to Advance Development of Lead Targeted Exosome Therapeutics Program

Mantra Bio Raises $9M in Series A-2 Financing

Mantra Bio Raises $9M in Series A-2

Therapeutics that target specific areas/tissues to minimize treatment side effects.

Tissue Targeting Therapeutics

Mantra Bio is a biotechnology company specializing in the development of targeted therapeutics using its proprietary exosome engineering platform, REVEAL. The platform integrates computational biology and bench lab automation to design precision therapeutics directed at various tissue and cellular targets. Mantra Bio's technology capitalizes on exosomes, which are natural nanoparticles secreted by cells for intercellular communication. The REVEAL platform combines AI/machine learning and synthetic biology to rapidly design, test, and optimize exosome therapeutics. This process involves designing therapeutic exosome candidates in silico, screening them for potency and pharmacokinetics, and optimizing them through a dry lab-to-wet lab development cycle.
The company's initial pipeline focuses on engineered exosome therapeutics in ophthalmology and infectious diseases. Mantra Bio's lead program in ophthalmology employs engineered bi-specific exosomes that precisely target multiple disease pathways. These exosomes are designed to deliver various surface-loaded therapeutic engagers to diseased cells and localize them to key tissue segments of the eye. This approach differentiates itself from conventional methods such as antibodies. As of January 2023, Mantra Bio had selected a development candidate for its lead program aimed at ophthalmic diseases and was advancing it through IND-enabling studies.
Mantra Bio has also developed a proprietary, scalable exosome manufacturing process. The company claims to have achieved high yield, purity, and consistency in its CMC manufacturing process, which is crucial for delivering therapeutics across various indications. This scalable biomanufacturing process and related technologies are designed to ensure that this new class of therapeutics can be reproducibly made at high purity, consistency, and yield.

<div>
 
 Generation Bio is a biotechnology company developing non-viral genetic medicines for rare and prevalent diseases. The company's proprietary platform combines immune-quiet DNA (iqDNA), a novel variant of closed-ended DNA, with a cell-targeted lipid nanoparticle (ctLNP) delivery system and a rapid enzymatic synthesis (RES) manufacturing process. This platform is designed to create gene therapies with drug-like properties, offering durable gene expression, the ability to re-dose for individual patient titration, and the potential to sustain effect over a lifetime. Generation Bio's approach aims to enable multi-year durability from a single dose, deliver large genetic payloads, and allow titration and redosing to adjust or extend expression levels in each patient. The company's pipeline includes programs for liver diseases such as hemophilia A, phenylketonuria (PKU), and Wilson's disease, as well as eye disorders like Stargardt disease and Leber congenital amaurosis type 10. In October 2023, Generation Bio announced the development of iqDNA, which demonstrated cytokine levels and tolerability comparable to chemically modified messenger RNA in mice and non-human primates. Generation Bio's RES manufacturing process has the potential to produce ceDNA at a scale of hundreds of millions of doses.
 
 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 
 
 In March 2023, Generation Bio entered into a strategic partnership with Moderna to develop non-viral genetic medicines. The collaboration combines Moderna's expertise with Generation Bio's platform technologies to expand their respective non-viral genetic medicines pipelines. Under this partnership, Moderna is using Generation Bio's ctLNP delivery system and iqDNA technology to advance two immune cell programs and two liver programs. The deal included a USD 40 million upfront cash payment and a USD 36 million equity investment from Moderna. Generation Bio will also receive future development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments, along with royalties on worldwide net sales of immune cell-targeted and liver-targeted products. The partnership aims to develop new lipid nanoparticles and expand in vivo immune cell targeting as a new class of genetic medicines.
 
</div>

Generation Bio

Oncopeptides AB is a biotech company focused on developing therapies for difficult-to-treat hematological diseases, particularly multiple myeloma. The company's lead product, PEPAXTO (melphalan flufenamide, also known as melflufen), received FDA approval in February 2021 for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma who have received at least four prior lines of therapy. PEPAXTO is the first anticancer peptide-drug conjugate approved by the FDA for this indication. The drug works by leveraging aminopeptidases, which are overexpressed in multiple myeloma cells, to release cytotoxic agents.
In August 2022, the European Commission granted marketing authorization for Pepaxti (melphalan flufenamide) in combination with dexamethasone for the treatment of adult patients with multiple myeloma who have received at least three prior lines of therapies. Oncopeptides' research is based on two technology platforms: Peptide Drug Conjugates (PDC) and Small Polypeptide based Innate Killer Engagers (SPiKE). The PDC platform allows for efficient drug distribution in the body, enabling a wide therapeutic window and an optimized benefit-risk profile. The SPiKE platform utilizes the immune system to fight cancer by targeting natural killer cells, potentially reducing dose-limiting side effects while maintaining clinical efficacy.
As of 2023, Oncopeptides was conducting one clinical phase 3 study and six clinical phase 2 studies. The company's pipeline includes innovative drug candidates for difficult-to-treat hematological diseases, with the potential to expand into new indications. Oncopeptides' approach is science and data-driven, focusing on bringing innovation to patients with rare hematological diseases.

Oncopeptides

Neurona Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotherapeutics company focused on developing regenerative cell therapy candidates for the treatment of neurological disorders. The company's lead investigational candidate, NRTX-1001, is being evaluated in an ongoing Phase I/II clinical trial for drug-resistant mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE). NRTX-1001 is a regenerative neural cell therapy derived from human pluripotent stem cells. It consists of fully-differentiated neural cells called interneurons that secrete the inhibitory neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Delivered as a one-time dose, these human interneurons are intended to integrate on-target and durably silence seizure activity in the epileptic region of the brain. In December 2023, Neurona presented early data from five participants in the ongoing study of NRTX-1001. Two patients who received the therapy more than a year prior experienced at least a 95% reduction in overall seizure frequency. NRTX-1001 is manufactured in Neurona's in-house GMP facility using proprietary methods. Beyond epilepsy, Neurona is also evaluating NRTX-1001 for potential application in Alzheimer's disease. The company's pipeline includes other cell therapy candidates such as investigational myelinating glial cells and gene-edited cells for undisclosed indications.

Neurona Therapeutics

Evox Therapeutics is a biotechnology company specializing in exosome therapeutics. The company utilizes its proprietary DeliverEX technology to engineer exosomes for drug delivery to specific organs, including the brain and central nervous system. Evox's approach aims to overcome limitations of genetic medicines such as gene therapy, gene editing, and RNA therapeutics by enabling safe, non-immunogenic repeated delivery to cells and tissues that are challenging to reach with other drug delivery technologies.
The company's technology focuses on harnessing and engineering the natural delivery capabilities of extracellular vesicles, known as exosomes, to develop a new class of therapeutics for treating severe rare diseases. Evox's intellectual property portfolio includes more than 100 granted patents across key jurisdictions, covering various aspects of exosome-based drug design, development, and manufacturing. In May 2023, Evox was granted a US patent for a method of purifying engineered exosomes using ultrafiltration and size-based separation steps, which is widely used in exosome therapeutics.
In June 2023, Evox acquired Codiak Biosciences' engEx-AAV technology platform, which enables active loading of adeno-associated virus (AAV) into exosomes. This technology has demonstrated improved AAV delivery, increased expression breadth in preclinical models, and shielding of AAVs from neutralizing antibodies. The acquisition aligns with Evox's strategy to enhance exosome-mediated delivery for genetic medicines such as gene therapy and genome editors.

Evox Therapeutics

Aro Biotherapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company based in Philadelphia that specializes in developing tissue-targeted genetic medicines. The company's core technology is a proprietary protein platform called Centyrins, which enables efficient and tissue-specific delivery of siRNA and other genetic drugs. Aro's lead candidate, ABX1100, is being developed for the treatment of Pompe disease, a rare genetic disorder characterized by toxic glycogen accumulation in muscles. ABX1100 comprises a CD71 receptor-binding Centyrin conjugated to a small interfering RNA (siRNA) that targets the Gys1 gene, reducing levels and activity of the Gys1 enzyme in muscle tissues. The therapy has shown promising results in preclinical studies, demonstrating potent and muscle-specific reductions in Gys1 mRNA and protein in the Pompe mouse model. In October 2023, Aro initiated a Phase 1 clinical trial of ABX1100 in Canada, with initial data expected in 2024. The US Food and Drug Administration granted ABX1100 Orphan Drug Designation and Rare Pediatric Disease status. Beyond Pompe disease, Aro is exploring the potential of its Centyrin-siRNA conjugate programs for developing new treatments for autoimmune disorders.

Aro Biotherapeutics

Therapeutics that are designed to target specific cells to reach designated target sites

Therapeutics that are designed to target specific protein or protein receptors to reach designated target sites

Therapeutics that use different targeting approaches, such as bone-targeting or pressure-based, to help therapeutics identify specific target sites

Companies that offer contract research and manufacturing facilities that focus on tissue-targeting therapeutics for life sciences organizations

Mantra Bio

Sources

About EDGE

Contact Us

Resources

Area of Focus

Technology Research Made Effortless