Venrock continues a tradition of partnering with entrepreneurs to establish successful, enduring companies. With a primary focus on technology and healthcare, portfolio companies have included Apple Computer, Athenahealth, Centocor, Check Point Software, DoubleClick, Endeca, Gilead Sciences, Idec Pharma, Imperva, Illumina, Intel, Nest, SlideShare, and Tudou.

Venrock

Paladin Capital Group is a leading global investor that supports and grows the world’s most innovative companies through venture investment, expansion, and growth capital.  Paladin is a leader in investing in technologies, products, and services focused on dual use in both commercial and governmental markets with a strong value-add culture. The Paladin team merges financial expertise with national security and technical competence to add value across a wide array of market sectors and company stages. Paladin is focused on being an active investor—bringing decades of experience, advice, access, and relationships to its portfolio companies. Their most recent fund focuses on digital infrastructure resilience, investing globally in advanced technologies and solutions which enable, monitor, manage, and defend critical infrastructure that is dependent on cyber space.  The firm is headquartered in Washington, DC, with offices in New York City, Silicon Valley, London, and Luxembourg.

Paladin Capital Group

Foresite Capital is a healthcare and life sciences investment firm. They take a data-driven approach to invest in startups that employ biology and big data to improve healthcare, such as 10x Genomics, Relay Therapeutics, Element Biosciences, and Inscripta.

Foresite Capital

The principals of Spruce Capital Partners are well known investors and thought leaders in the biogreentech sector. They bring a wealth of experience as investors, advisers, and domain experts in helping entrepreneurs build the next generation of successful biogreentech companies. They formed Spruce Capital Partners not only to manage venture funds, but also to develop new talent for the industry, provide thought leadership, and promote innovation in companies and countries. The principals have worked together for more than 10 years and have shepherded investments across multiple funds and multiple sectors. The principals of Spruce Capital Partners are also active in advising, partnering, and shaping the life sciences industry globally and, especially in Malaysia and United States.

Spruce Capital Partners

+ND Capital (NanoDimension) is a venture capital firm founded in 2002 that invests in disruptive technologies across the life, physical, and data sciences.

+ND Capital

Mérieux Equity Partners (“MxEP”) is a management company dedicated to venture, growth and LBO investments in the healthcare and nutrition sectors. MxEP actively supports entrepreneurs and industrial companies with differentiated products and services, by providing privileged access to its expertise and international network. MxEP currently manages more than €600m AUM and has recently launched a new vehicle MP3 of €350m dedicated to growth/LBO.

Mérieux Equity Partners

Oak HC/FT is a venture and growth equity investment firm that focuses on healthcare information services and financial service technology.   The firm focuses on driving transformation in these industries by providing entrepreneurs and companies with strategic counsel, board-level participation, and access to our extensive network of industry leaders. Oak HC/FT partners are peerless in delivering returns for investors and growing innovative businesses. Over the past decade, the partners at Oak HC/FT have had 20 realizations with 6 companies achieving valuations in excess of $1 billion. Oak HC/FT is led by the Healthcare and FinTech team of Oak Investment Partners as part of Oak’s strategy to develop sector-specific funds and continue its legacy of building best-in-class businesses.

Oak HC/FT

JS Capital Management is an investment firm.

JS Capital Management

GoldenArc Capital is a Silicon Valley based funding firm built to identify and invest in the next generation of driving private development stage technology companies. The firm's portfolio has generated top-tier returns with investments in more than 20 companies and achieved 4 IPOs to date with several more in the IPO pipeline

GoldenArc Capital

Fidelity is a privately owned investment management firm that serves a wide range of clients. It offers services including IRAs, 401(k) rollovers, annuities, discount brokerage, retirement planning, estate planning, wealth management, securities execution and clearance, and life insurance. Fidelity serves individual investors, businesses, financial advisors, and institutions. The firm manages equity, fixed-income, and balanced mutual funds, and invests in public equity and fixed-income markets worldwide. It also conducts in-house research to inform its investment decisions.

Fidelity

D1 Capital Partners is an investment firm that deploys capital in both public and private markets. It invests on behalf of investors globally, including endowments and foundations, family offices, sovereign wealth funds, outsourced CIOs, hospitals, and pensions. D1 has a fundamental and research-intensive investment strategy with a focus on medium to long-term returns. Its research centers on the consumer, business services, financial services, healthcare, industrials, real estate and technology, media, and telecom sectors.

D1 Capital Partners

Durable Capital Partners invests in small and mid-cap companies in both public and private markets. Their investment philosophy is grounded in sourcing small-cap and mid-cap compounders in both the private and public markets.

Durable Capital Partners

Counterpoint Global is one of Morgan Stanley's fundamental equity teams that aims to make long-term investments in unique companies. The culture of the team promotes collaboration, creativity, ongoing development, and differentiated thinking. Company portfolios are normally concentrated and differentiated from their benchmarks. Counterpoint Global is made up of 35 individuals, including 18 investment professionals and two disruptive change researchers.

Counterpoint Global

Inscripta

Inscripta is developing the first benchtop platform for scalable digital genome engineering. The company’s advanced CRISPR-based platform, consisting of an instrument, consumables, software, and assays, offers a fully automated workflow that enables massively parallel, trackable editing of single cells at an unprecedented scale. Inscripta’s goal is to empower scientists whose gene editing research is stifled by current technical and licensing limitations. By providing this unique platform and engaging in collaborative business practices, such as making its MAD7 CRISPR nuclease-free for research and development purposes, the company enables scientists to realize a new era of biological discovery.

<div>Inscripta offers genome engineering solutions to researchers to facilitate CRISPR-based gene editing. The company&rsquo;s two main offerings include Onyx, a benchtop-sized system for digital microbial genome engineering, and MADzyme nucleases (MAD7), a new class of CRISPR enzymes.&nbsp;</div>

Reinventing gene therapies with next-generation technologies

Human Gene Editing

Inscripta Is Reimagining What The Synthetic Biology Company Of The Future Will Be

<div>
 
 Inscripta offers genome engineering solutions to researchers to facilitate CRISPR-based gene editing. The company&rsquo;s two main offerings include Onyx, a benchtop-sized system for digital microbial genome engineering, and MADzyme nucleases (MAD7), a new class of CRISPR enzymes.&nbsp;
 
 
 The Onyx platform was&nbsp; launched in October 2020 and includes a fully automated workflow for genome editing that incorporates a hardware system, genome engineering kits and assays, and the engineering portal software &ldquo;InscriptaDesigner.&rdquo; The platform claims to be capable of creating&nbsp; libraries with millions of precisely engineered single cells. As of May 2022, the company reportedly filed for around 100 patents in the US for the platform.&nbsp;
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 The company targets genomic researchers across academia and industry including drug developers and pharmaceutical companies across the world. Inscripta delivered the Onyx platform to its first commercial customer 
 <a href="https://www.inscripta.com/news/inscripta-announces-the-first-commercial-shipment-of-its-onyx-digital-genome-engineering-platform-and-closes-150-million-in-new-financing">
 Genemill
 </a>
 at the University of Oxford in April 2021 (priced at USD 347,000). Its recent customers include 
 <a href="https://www.inscripta.com/news/ginkgo-bioworks-adopts-onyx-platform">
 Gingko Bioworks
 </a>
 (January 2022) and 
 <a href="https://www.inscripta.com/news/amyris-partners-with-inscripta-to-enhance-development-of-sustainable-ingredients-using-the-onyx-genome-engineering-platform">
 Amyris Inc
 </a>
 . (March 2022).
 
 
 The company, however, was supplying its MAD7 CRISPR nucleases for free to support academic researchers and scientists and followed a licensing model for non-research purposes. In October 2021, it signed a licensing agreement with 
 <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211012005273/en/Hunterian-Medicine%C2%AE-Licenses-Inscripta%E2%80%99s-MAD7%E2%84%A2-Nuclease-to-Advance-Gene-Editing-Research-and-Development">
 Hunterian Medicine
 </a>
 to use the MAD7 nuclease. Inscripta partnered with 
 <a href="https://www.inscripta.com/news/aldevron-licenses-the-manufacturing-of-mad7-a-type-v-crispr-nuclease-from-inscripta">
 Aldevron
 </a>
 in May 2022 to license one of its MAD7 enzymes for manufacturing and commercialization.
 
 
 Funding and financials&nbsp;
 
 
 In its latest Series E financing round in April 2021 led by Fidelity Management and Research Company, Inscripta raised USD 150 million, bringing its total funds raised to USD 459.5 million. It intended to use the funds to accelerate its growth attempts. 
 
</div>

<div>
 
 Editas Medicine specializes in gene editing to develop novel therapeutics for a variety of areas including oncology, ocular diseases, and blood diseases. It leverages the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) technology, specifically Cas9 and Cas12a enzymes.&nbsp;
 
 
 The company develops both in vivo (gene editing done inside the body) and ex vivo (gene editing done in a specialized laboratory and returned to the body) therapeutics. As of March 2024, Editas has seven gene editing programs in its pipeline.&nbsp;
 
 
 One of the company&rsquo;s candidates was in the late clinical trial stages as of March 2024. The Phase I/II clinical trials on Editas&rsquo; in vivo gene editing therapy EDIT-101 have been ongoing since 2019 and the company announced that it had achieved proof of concept and identified a responder population in November 2022. For the first time ever (in April 2022), the company delivered its experimental in vivo CRISPR therapy to a 
 <a href="https://ir.editasmedicine.com/news-releases/news-release-details/editas-medicine-announces-dosing-first-pediatric-patient">
 pediatric patient
 </a>
 to treat Leber congenital amaurosis 10 (LCA10), an inherited early childhood eye disease. Its ex vivo gene editing therapy EDIT-301 holds two rare pediatric disease designations granted by the FDA for transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia and sickle cell disease. The candidate also received 
 <a href="https://ir.editasmedicine.com/news-releases/news-release-details/editas-medicine-receives-fda-orphan-drug-designation-edit-301">
 orphan drug designation
 </a>
 in May 2022 for beta-thalassemia.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 Founded in September 2013, Editas has secured several collaborations with other pharmaceutical and drug developers including 
 <a href="https://www.catalent.com/catalent-news/catalent-enters-into-strategic-partnership-with-editas-medicine-to-support-gene-editing-medicine-pipeline/">
 Catalent
 </a>
 (for therapy development and manufacturing support),
 <a href="https://ir.editasmedicine.com/news-releases/news-release-details/adverum-biotechnologies-and-editas-medicine-announce">
 Adverum Biotechnologies 
 </a>
 (to develop technologies to deliver gene editing medicines to the eye), 
 <a href="https://www.askbio.com/editas-medicine-and-askbio-enter-strategic-research-collaboration-to-explore-in-vivo-delivery-of-genome-editing-medicines-to-treat-neurological-diseases/">
 Asklepios BioPharmaceutical
 </a>
 (AskBio) (to research in vivo gene editing therapies for neurological diseases),
 <a href="https://ir.editasmedicine.com/news-releases/news-release-details/editas-medicine-and-bluerock-therapeutics-enter-strategic">
 BlueRock Therapeutics
 </a>
 (to develop medicines by combining cell therapy and gene editing technologies), and big pharma such as Bristol-Myers Squibb (to develop cell therapies for oncology).&nbsp;
 
 
 The company expanded its partnership with Azzur Cleanrooms on Demand (COD) in July 2023 with regard to continuing to manufacture Editas' candidate EDIT-301. 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 The company last raised funds in June 2023 when the company raised USD 125 million in a common stock offering. Editas Medicine did not disclose what the raised funds would be used for. The company has been listed on the Nasdaq since February 2016 and was the first CRISPR gene editing company to go public. 
 
</div>

Editas Medicine

<div>
 
 CRISPR Therapeutics specializes in developing gene editing-based novel therapeutics for a variety of areas including immuno-oncology and hemoglobinopathies. It leverages the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) technology, specifically Cas9 enzymes, and focuses predominantly on treating somatic cells that do not transfer DNA to the next generations, preventing future generations from contracting a genetic disease.&nbsp;
 
 
 The company develops both in vivo (gene editing done inside the body) and ex vivo (gene editing done in a specialized laboratory and returned to the body) therapeutics. As of March 2024, the company had 18 drug candidates in its pipeline. 
 
 
 In a milestone event in November 2023, the company&rsquo;s gene-editing therapy exagamglogene autotemcel, CASGEVY 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/24093">
 (exa-cel)
 </a>
 , developed with Vertex Pharmaceuticals to treat sickle-cell disease and beta-thalassemia, received the world&rsquo;s first authorization from the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products, Regulatory Agency (MHRA). In December 2023, it received FDA approval for patients aged 12 and older. The drug for beta-thalassemia patients is also nearing its market entry in the US, with the FDA&rsquo;s decision expected on March 30, 2024.&nbsp;
 
 
 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 
 
 The company has secured strategic collaborations with several companies to co-develop and co-commercialize gene editing medicines that include 
 <a href="https://investors.vrtx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/vertex-pharmaceuticals-and-crispr-therapeutics-amend">
 Vertex Pharmaceuticals
 </a>
 (2015) to develop a therapy (CTX001) for various indications including beta-thalassemia, sickle cell disease, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy; and 
 <a href="https://viacyte.com/press-releases/crispr-therapeutics-and-viacyte-announce-strategic-collaboration-to-develop-gene-edited-stem-cell-derived-therapy-for-diabetes/">
 ViaCyte
 </a>
 (September 2018) to develop VCTX210, a regenerative medicine for diabetes.
 
 
 Big pharma Bayer also signed an option agreement in 2019 with the company to co-develop and co-commercialize two candidates, after entirely handing over the joint venture Casebia Therapeutics to CRISPR.&nbsp;&nbsp;
 
 
 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 
 
 Founded in 2013, CRISPR has been listed on the Nasdaq since 2016. For 2021, the company reported a revenue of USD 913.1 million earned via milestone payments, collaborations, and licensing.
 
 
 
 
 
</div>

CRISPR Therapeutics

<div>
 
 Intellia Therapeutics specializes in gene editing to develop novel therapeutics for various areas, including immuno-oncology, autoimmune, and genetic diseases. It leverages the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) technology, specifically Cas9 enzymes.&nbsp;
 
 
 The company develops both in vivo (gene editing done inside the body) and ex vivo (gene editing done in a specialized laboratory and returned to the body) therapeutics. As of March 2024, it was working on 3 internal drug programs and four collaborative programs. As of March 2024, one program was in the late clinical stage, one program was in the early clinical stage, and five were in the research and preclinical stage. The company considers its lipid nanoparticle delivery system to be a key strength in minimizing genotoxicity risk and random insertion.
 
 
 Intellia acquired biotechnology company Rewrite Therapeutics for USD 45 million in February 2022 to leverage its gene editing and DNA-writing technologies. Intellia would also pay up to USD 155 million in additional milestone payments.
 
 
 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 Intellia has partnered with a number of biotech and pharma companies, including: 
 1) Big pharma Novartis (January 2015), to research and co-develop CRISPR/Cas9-edited therapies to develop an ex-vivo treatment for sickle-cell disease and a number of undisclosed programs 
 2) Kyverna Therapeutics (January 2022), for the development of a next-generation CD19 CAR T-cell therapy for autoimmune diseases 
 3) ONK Therapeutics (February 2022), to develop engineered natural killer (NK) cell therapies for cancer treatment.&nbsp;
 
 
 In October 2023, the company expanded its research collaboration with 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/22377">
 Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
 </a>
 (entered in April 2020) to develop gene-editing therapies for neurological and muscular diseases.
 
 
 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 Founded by Caribou Biosciences and Atlas Ventures in November 2014, Intellia has been listed on Nasdaq since May 2016. In 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15140">
 November 2022
 </a>
 , the company raised USD 300 million via an underwritten public offering&mdash;it did not disclose the purpose of the financing. For 2022, the company reported a revenue of ~USD 52&nbsp; million, earned through collaborations.
 
</div>

Intellia Therapeutics

<div>
 
 Based in the US and France, Cellectis develops off-the-shelf gene editing cancer immunotherapies based on allogeneic Chimeric Antigen Receptors T (CAR-T) cells dubbed UCARTs by leveraging the transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALEN) technology.
 
 
 As of March 2024, the company had seven therapeutics in development; two targeting Leukemia, one for the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, one for Large B Cell Lymphoma, two for Multiple Myelnoma, and one for Renal Cell Carcinoma. Its Leukemia therapeutics were in Phase I of clinical trials, while its non-Hodgkin lymphoma solution was just entering Phase I of clinical trials. The company's therapeutics for Multiple Myeloma, another for Lymphoma, and Renal Cell Carcinoma, had been licensed out to other pharmaceutical companies.&nbsp;
 
 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 In 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/23389">
 November 2023
 </a>
 , Cellectis entered into a partnership with AstraZeneca to accelerate the development of gene editing therapeutics, with a focus on oncology, immunology, and rare diseases.&nbsp;
 
 
 Cellectis also partnered with Primera in January 2023 to develop in-vivo gene therapies for mitochondrial disease. Through the partnership, both entities would collaborate to genetically edit mutations in mitochondrial DNA and develop an engineering toolbox that can be used to develop therapeutics for mitochondrial diseases. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 The company entered into several strategic collaboration agreements with AstraZeneca in November 2023. These agreements included an investment agreement relating to an initial equity investment of USD 80 million by subscribing for 16 million ordinary shares. Cellectis stated that it planned to use the proceeds received to develop gene editing tools, for research and development expenses incurred in developing its programs, and other general corporate purposes.
 
 
 
</div>

Cellectis

<div>
 
 Caribou Biosciences specializes in gene editing to develop novel therapeutics for hematologic oncology indications using the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) technology. It develops allogeneic off-the-shelf gene edited therapies based on Chimeric Antigen Receptors T (CAR-T) cells and CAR Natural Killer (CAR-NK) cells.
 
 
 The company leverages its proprietary platform CRISPR hybrid RNA-DNA (chRDNA), which uses hybrid guides&mdash;both ribonucleic acid (RNA) and DNA nucleotides&mdash;to edit DNA. As of March 2024, Caribou had four candidates in its clinical pipeline, of which its lead candidate CB-010, a CAR-T therapy to treat relapsed/refractory B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, was in the Phase I clinical trial stage (March 2024). Its other CAR-T candidates, CB-011 for the treatment of relapsed/refractory Multiple Myeloma and CB-012, for the treatment of relapsed/refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia, were also in Phase I of clinical trials. Its alternate application for CB-010 to treat autoimmune diseases was still in the discovery stage. 
 
 
 The company intended to extend ex vivo (gene editing done in a specialized laboratory and returned to the body) therapies toward other indications outside oncology and implement its Cas12a chRDNA platform in in vivo (gene editing done inside the body) applications.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 The company entered into a partnership with big pharma company 
 <a href="https://news.abbvie.com/news/press-releases/abbvie-and-caribou-biosciences-announce-collaboration-and-license-agreement-for-car-t-cell-products.htm">
 Abbvie
 </a>
 in February 2021 for licensing and co-development of two CAR-T therapies. Caribou also entered into licensing agreements with 
 <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201118005128/en/Caribou-Biosciences-Announces-Licensing-Agreement-for-scFvs-Targeting-CD371-to-Enable-Development-of-Allogeneic-Cell-Therapies">
 Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
 </a>
 (MSKCC) (November 2020), Corteva Agriscience, and Intellia Therapeutics. It also has a sales and assignment agreement with ProMab Biotechnologies Inc. (February 2020).
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 Caribou Biosciences went public on the Nasdaq Global Select Market in July 2021 and raised USD 304 million. The IPO proceeds were earmarked to fuel the company&rsquo;s clinical development. For 2021, it recorded revenue of USD 9.6 million earned through licensing and collaborations.
 
 
 The company last raised funding in July 2023, when it raised USD 125 million in an upsized underwritten public offering. Caribou did not disclose what the funds would be used for. 
 
</div>

Caribou Biosciences

Companies that develop novel therapeutics based on the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technology

Companies that develop novel therapeutics based on other types of gene editing technologies including TALEN and ZFN

Companies that develop systems that enable the diagnosis of gene-edited therapies. Also includes systems that deliver gene-editing components into the human body

Companies that offer their gene-editing platforms to other pharma companies to develop therapeutics

Companies that offer support services to gene-editing companies, which include genomic research companies, gene-editing component manufacturing, and designing tools

Startups in the hub develop gene-editing treatments to cater to specific patients and patient profiles

Genomics enables precise changes in the DNA sequence of living organisms to develop treatments

Inscripta

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