Kleiner Perkins is a venture capital firm specializing in investing in early-stage, growth, and incubation companies. The firm continues that legacy, investing in founders with bold ideas that span industries and continents, partnering with them from inception to IPO and beyond to maximize the potential of their ideas. They also focus on early computer firms using their devices and programming and service companies. It also invests in the digital, life sciences, and healthcare industries.

Kleiner Perkins

Osage University Partners is a venture capital firm focused on investing in startups that are commercializing university technologies. Osage partners with research universities to invest in their innovative startups shareing its investment profit with partner institutions. The firm invests in software, hardware, and life science companies at all stages of company development. To date, it has partnered with over 80 universities, including 36 of the top 50 U.S. institutions by research expenditures, and has invested in over 50 of their spinouts.

OUP (Osage University Partners)

The University of California opened its doors in 1869 with just 10 faculty members and 38 students. Today, the UC system includes more than 238,000 students and more than 190,000 faculty and staff, with more than 1.7 million alumni living and working around the world. For almost 150 years, UC has expanded the horizons of what we know about ourselves and our world. Our campuses are routinely ranked among the best in the world, but our reach extends beyond campus borders. Our students, faculty, staff, and alumni exchange ideas, make advancements, and unlock the secrets and mysteries of the universe every day. They engage with their local governments, serve California schools, protect the environment, and push the boundaries of space. Education and research as pioneering as California itself From all backgrounds, ethnicities, and incomes, UC attracts the best and brightest. UC undergraduates come from all over California, and they work hard to make it to college. Over 40 percent of UC students come from low-income families. UC's faculty are the drivers behind innovations in biotechnology, computer science, art, and architecture and they bring that knowledge, that greatness, directly to the classroom. Thousands of California jobs, billions of dollars in revenues, and countless everyday household items from more plentiful fruits and vegetables to compact fluorescent light bulbs can be traced back to UC discoveries. Similarly, many of the state’s leading businesses are based on UC technology, founded by our faculty or led by UC graduates.

University of California

Euclidean Capital is an investment firm that invests in individual and family services management.

Euclidean Capital

The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy brings together the best scientists, clinicians, and industry partners. The company strives to build a smarter and more coordinated cancer immunotherapy research effort to save lives.

Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy

Westlake Village BioPartners is a venture capital firm focused on incubating and building life sciences companies with entrepreneurs that have the potential to bring transformative therapies and technologies to patients. The Westlake model is built on the founding team’s unique experience in successfully identifying and developing breakthrough therapies and building organizations.

Westlake Village BioPartners

Established in 2015, the UCSF Foundation Investment Company provides professional stewardship of the UCSF Foundation’s financial assets and an endowment now valued at more than $1.5 billion. The endowment facilitates UCSF’s work in education, scientific research, patient care, and public health. The non-profit UCSF Investment Company is led by its chief investment officer and governed by the Investment Company Board, which comprises selected volunteer leaders from the UCSF Board of Overseers as well as external investment and business experts.

UCSF Foundation Investment Company

SoftBank Vision Fund is a subsidiary of Softbank Group that specializes in growth capital and social impact investments. Sectors that the fund invests in include the internet of things, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, communications infrastructure, telecoms, computational biology, biotech, cloud technologies and software, consumer internet businesses, financial technology, and mobile apps. The Fund is designed to be a catalyst for technology progress in anticipation that it will expand SoftBank's capabilities, accelerating progress towards SoftBank 2.0. It aims to invest in businesses and foundational platforms that SoftBank believes to revolutionize and innovate the world tomorrow.

SoftBank Vision Fund

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the discovery, development, licensing, manufacturing, marketing, distribution, and sale of pharmaceuticals and nutritional products.  Bristol Myers Squibb focuses on areas such as oncology, cardiovascular, immunoscience, and fibrosis to develop therapies that address significant unmet medical needs. The company's research and development efforts are centered around discovering new drugs and advancing existing ones to improve patient outcomes. BMS has a diverse portfolio of medicines, including several blockbuster drugs used in the treatment of cancer and other diseases. The company is committed to advancing the science of medicine to help people fight serious diseases and improve their quality of life.

Bristol-Myers Squibb

UCSF scientist over twenty-five (25) years, twenty-three as Director of the Laboratory for Cell Analysis (LCA). Currently Director of the Lab for Advanced Cytometry (LAC) and the Sony Biotechnology Center at UCSF in the Department of Laboratory Medicine. • Built the LCA into one of the largest academic cytometry core facilities worldwide. • Direct contribution to grants totals well over $40M in extramural funding.  • Helped design and build five commercial flow cytometers, two cell sorters, and two commercial confocal microscopes.  Current work supports several developing technology fields including automated digital pathology and laser-based microdissection systems, next generation clinical cell sorters, spectral flow cytometry, chip-based cytometry and point-of-care devices, wide-field high-resolution deep tissue confocal microscopy, mass spec flow cytometry (CyTOF), and spectral in vivo imaging. Application development includes single cell genomics, new functional reporter probes for cell cycle, cellular biosensors, FRET/FRAP/FLIM reporters for monitoring protein and drug interactions, new encoded carrier technology for immune profiling and liquid arrays, and rapid identification systems for virology and microbiology. Hyun also participates in biomedical software and database design, and testing of new algorithms for cytometric data processing and presentation of results.

University of California, San Francisco

Emerson Collective is an organization dedicated to removing barriers to opportunity so people can live to their full potential. Established and led by Laurene Powell Jobs, we center our work on education, immigration reform, the environment, and other social justice initiatives. We use a wide range of tools and strategies—partnering with entrepreneurs and experts, parents and policymakers, advocates and administrators—to develop and execute innovative solutions that will spur change and promote equality.

Emerson Collective

Waycross Ventures is a venture capital firm. It is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.

Waycross Ventures

Green Sands Equity is a boutique private equity investment firm focused on Growth Capital, Investment Advisory and Strategic Buyouts.

Green Sands Equity

Sixth Street Partners is a financial services company that provides solutions for companies. Their solutions include healthcare, digital media, fund, real estate, and market solutions. Their market solutions platform provides products for markets, market investing, and market solutions.

Sixth Street

Hitachi Ventures invests in innovative companies that address society’s key technological challenges in areas like IT, industrial automation (robotics, sensor technology and IoT), cloud services (data management, cybersecurity), mobility (autonomous driving, mobility services, smart infrastructure and security services), energy, smart medicine (AI for digital imaging, smart diagnostics, remote care), smart city, smart infrastructure and more.  With our first fund of USD 150M, we invest in Series A/B/C rounds in globally leading startups. From our offices in Munich, Germany, and Boston, USA, we work tirelessly to develop close ties and effective collaboration with leading innovative technology hubs and like-minded co-investors. Hitachi intends to leverage its strong position in multiple global technology markets, its expertise and network to support and promote Hitachi Ventures portfolio companies.

Hitachi Ventures

Byers Capital focuses on investing in startups in Series A + B rounds.

Byers Capital

Deep tech. Health tech. New economy. AI. Helping great entrepreneurs build 'century-defining' technologies & businesses.

Triatomic Capital

T. Rowe Price is an investment management firm dedicated to funding technology startups. The firm serves individuals, financial intermediaries, and institutions and offers a full range of investment strategies across a broad spectrum: debt, equities, and private equities.

T. Rowe Price

ARCH invests primarily in companies co-founded by scientists and entrepreneurs, concentrating on bringing to market innovations in life sciences. They enjoy special recognition as a leader in the successful commercialization of technologies developed at academic research institutions and national laboratories. ARCH has raised ten venture funds totaling over $3 billion and has invested in the venture capital rounds for more than 150 companies. ARCH investors include corporations, pension funds, endowment funds, financial institutions, and private investors.

ARCH Venture Partners

Rock Springs Capital is an investment company situated in Baltimore, Maryland. The company specializes in offering advisory services, primarily focused on managing security portfolios and providing portfolio management solutions to businesses and institutional clients. Through its advisory activities, Rock Springs Capital aims to assist clients in optimizing their investment strategies and achieving their financial goals.

Rock Springs Capital

NVentures is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology companies, focusing on innovations in various sectors. NVentures is the venture capital arm of NVIDIA.

NVentures

Milky Way Investments Group is a venture capital firm.

Milky Way Investments Group

Regeneron Ventures is a health care venture capital fund.

Regeneron Ventures

Luma Group is an investment firm focused on the intersection of technology-driven life sciences and healthcare companies.

Luma Group

ArsenalBio

ArsenalBio is building a programmable cell therapy company to create highly effective and accessible immune cell therapies to impact outcomes for a much broader number of patients, initially those with cancer. Founded in 2019, ArsenalBio is focused on integrating technologies such as CRISPR-based genome engineering, scaled and high throughput target identification, synthetic biology, and machine learning to advance a new paradigm to discover and develop immune cell therapies. With its programmable and computationally driven approach, ArsenalBio aspires to evolve critical metrics of success for immune cell therapies, including enhanced and broader efficacy, increased patient safety, reduced provider costs and expanded market access.

ArsenalBio provides oncology therapeutics based on genetically programmed T-cells that attack solid tumors. The company uses multiomics, machine learning, gene editing, and synthetic biology to produce cell-based oncology therapeutics. The company has developed an “engine” that is able to generate multifunctional T cell therapeutics based on its internally curated library of integrated circuits.

Novel therapies to reboot cells and organs

Cell & Gene Therapy

ArsenalBio raises $325m for programmable CAR-T platform

Genentech

To leverage ArsenalBio's proprietary technology for high-throughput screening and engineering of T cells, aiming to develop new approaches to treating solid tumors.

Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy involves genetically engineering T cells to target and kill cancer cells

Arsenal Biosciences and Bristol Myers Squibb have expanded their collaboration to develop next-generation T cell therapies for solid tumors.

ArsenalBio partners with Bristol Myers Squibb to develop next-gen T cell therapies for solid tumors.

ArsenalBio provides oncology therapeutics based on genetically programmed T-cells that attack solid tumors. The company uses multiomics, machine learning, gene editing, and synthetic biology to produce cell-based oncology therapeutics. The company has developed an “engine” that is able to generate multifunctional T cell therapeutics based on its internally curated library of integrated circuits.As of May 2024, the company had five drug candidates in development, two of which were collaboration programs. Its wholly owned programs include AB-1015 (for the treatment of ovarian cancer), AB-2100 (for the treatment of Kidney cancer), AB-3000 (for the treatment of prostate cancer). AB-1015 and AB-2100 were both in early clinical testing, while AB-3000 was anticipated to receive IND approval between Q4 2025 and Q1 2026. Its collaborative candidates include AB-4000 and AB-5000, both being developed for solid tumor indications. Key customers and partnerships In September 2022, the company partnered with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, to collaborate on identifying successful T Cell therapies in the field of oncology. Through the partnership, both companies would use AresenalBio’s technology for screening and engineering T Cells to identify critical success circuits in T cell-based therapies. Genentech agreed to pay the company USD 70 million in upfront payments along with milestone payments for research, development, and commercialization. ArsenalBio then partnered with Thermo Fisher (TMO) in March 2023 to collaborate on refining the manufacturing processes of cancer treatments. Through the partnership, it would combine knowledge with the aim of assisting ArsenalBio with clinical research and process development capabilities. The companies also agreed to explore future therapeutic innovations.

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 Tenaya Therapeutics is a developer of therapeutics for heart disease. The company develops its therapeutics using precision medicine, gene therapy, and cellular regeneration. Tenaya produces therapeutics that also use proprietary in-vivo and in-vitro models. Additionally, the company has developed in-house adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsid engineering capabilities and has screened over one billion variants from more than 30 diverse, proprietary AAV libraries. The company is publicly listed on the Nasdaq and trades under the ticker symbol TNYA.&nbsp;&nbsp;
 
 
 In October 2023 Tenaya Therapeutics (Tenaya) received FDA clearance for the company&rsquo;s investigational new drug application (TN-401) to initiate clinical testing. TN-401 is Tenaya&rsquo;s adeno-associated virus serotype 9-based investigational gene therapy drug candidate for the treatment of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy caused by mutations in the plakophilin-2 gene. 
 
 
 As of May 2024, the company&rsquo;s clinical pipeline included two candidates in Phase I clinical trials, a gene therapeutic for the treatment of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, and a small molecule inhibitor for the treatment of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Additionally, Tenaya had one gene therapy candidate and two genetic medicine candidates in preclinical testing phases, along with five genetic medicine candidates in the discovery stage. 
 
 
 
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Tenaya Therapeutics

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 Sarepta Therapeutics is a gene therapy provider for conditions such as Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy 
 (LGMD), and Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease. The company&rsquo;s therapeutics incorporate technology related to gene therapy, RNA technologies, and gene editing. The company leverages a proprietary phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomer (PMO) platform for the development of its RNA-based therapeutics. As of August 2023, the company had four FDA-approved treatments for DMD: ELEVIDYS, EXONDYS 51, VYONDYS 53, and AMONDYS 45. Sarepta Therapeutics is also listed on the Nasdaq, trading under the symbol SRPT.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
 
 
 
 
 As of May 2024, the company had several RNA, gene, and gene editing therapeutics in various clinical stages. Sarepta had two RNA therapeutics, both for the treatment of DMD, one in clinical testing, and the other in pre-clinical testing. Additionally, the company had six gene therapeutics, one for the treatment of DMD (both in clinical testing), four for the treatment of LGMD (three in clinical testing, one in preclinical testing) and one for multiple targets (in preclinical testing). Also, Sarepta had two gene editing-based therapeutics in development for the treatment of DMD, both in preclinical testing phases. 
 
 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 
 
 Over the years since its founding, Sarepta has partnered with several industry and academic partners. The list includes Dyno Therapeutics, Genethon, Genevant Sciences, Hansa Biopharma, Roche, Columbia University, Harvard University, Translational Laboratory of Murdoch University, University of Florida College of Medicine, The Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children&rsquo;s Hospital, University of Massachusetts Medical School, and the University of Western Australia.&nbsp;&nbsp;
 
 
 
 
 In October 2021, Sarepta and healthcare giant Roche announced they would collaborate on carrying out a clinical study of Sarepta&rsquo;s therapeutic candidate SRP-9001 for the treatment of DMD.&nbsp;
 
 
 
 
 Sarepta and pharmaceutical company Catalent announced that in January 2023, the companies were signing a commercial supply agreement. Through the agreement,&nbsp; Catalent would manufacture Sarepta&rsquo;s gene therapeutic for the treatment of DMD; delandistrogene moxeparvovec (SRP-9001).
 
 
 
</div>

Sarepta Therapeutics

<div>
 
 Mesoblast is a cell therapy manufacturer that provides therapeutics for oncology, cardiovascular, orthopedic, hematology, immunity, and inflammation-related conditions. The company is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and trades under the ticker symbol &ldquo;MSB.&rdquo; Mesoblast develops therapeutics using its proprietary mesenchymal lineage cell technology platform, which is used to produce cryopreserved, off-the-shelf, and cellular-based solutions. The company also incorporates 3D bioreactor technology and automation into its production process to produce higher yields.&nbsp;
 
 
 
 
 As of May 2024, the company had five candidates that are in various stages of clinical testing. Mesoblast&rsquo;s steroid-refractory candidate for Acute Graft Versus Host Disease is currently in late-stage Phase III clinical testing and is the closest candidate to commercialization. The company&rsquo;s drug candidates for acute respiratory distress syndrome, chronic low back pain, and chronic heart failure and reduced ejection fraction are also in Phase III clinical testing while its candidate for inflammatory bowel disease is in Phase II of clinical testing.&nbsp;
 
 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 
 
 The company has secured several agreements with international companies with regard to development and commercialization of Mesoblast&rsquo;s candidates, including Gr&uuml;nenthal GmBH, JCR Pharmaceuticals, Tasly Pharmaceutical Group, TiGenix NV, and the Lonza Group.&nbsp;
 
 
 
 
 Additionally, in April 2020, Mesoblast partnered with The US NIH&rsquo;s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to conduct testing of its allogeneic mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) product candidate, &ldquo;remestemcel-L.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
 
 
 
 
 
</div>

Mesoblast

<div>
 
 Ocugen is a gene therapy manufacturer that develops vaccine, cell, and gene-based therapeutics for infectious, eye, and orthopedic diseases. Its cell therapy includes a three dimensional tissue-engineered cartilage disk through the growth of chondrocytes &ndash; the cells responsible for maintaining cartilage health. Its gene therapy solution consists of creating a copy of the patient&rsquo;s gene in order to replace mutated/damaged genes. The company is publicly listed on the Nasdaq, and trades under the symbol &lsquo;OCGN&rsquo;.&nbsp;
 
 
 As of May 2024, the company had five therapeutic solutions being clinically tested. The company was developing four gene therapies for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa, Leber congenital amaurosis, geographic atrophy, and orphan disease. Its treatment candidate for retinitis pigmentosa was in Phase III of clinical study, while its other gene therapies were in Phase I/II. 
 Ocugen was also developing a biological material, in the IND stage, for diabetic macular edema, diabetic retinopathy, and wet age-related macular degeneration. The company's cell therapy for the treatment of articular cartilage defects in the knee was in Phase III of clinical study. Finally, the company was also developing three vaccines, all in IND stages, for prevention of diseases caused by the flu, Covid-19, and a combination of the flu and Covid-19.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 Ocugen partnered with biopharmaceutical manufacturer Jubilant HollisterStier of Spokane in June 2021 to manufacture its Covid-19 therapeutic COVAXIN. Through the partnership, Jubilant would be the potential commercial manufacturer of Ocugen&rsquo;s vaccine for the US and Canadian markets.
 
 
 
 
 
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Ocugen

<div>
 
 MeiraGTx is a developer of gene therapies that aim to treat ocular diseases and problems, neurodegenerative disorders, and salivary gland and autoimmune disorders. MeriaGTx is also developing riboswitch-inducible expression programs for the treatment of inherited obesity and Wilson disease, along with producing small-molecule riboswitch inducers. The company is listed on the Nasdaq and trades under the symbol MGTX.&nbsp;&nbsp;
 
 
 As of May 2024, the company had four gene-based therapeutic candidates in Phase II of their clinical trials for the treatment of (1) xerostomia, Parkinson's Disease, and RPE65-Associated retinal dystrophy and (2) achromatopsia. The company also had one therapeutic being developed to treat Sjogren&rsquo;s Syndrome that was in Phase I/II of its clinical trials. Additionally, MeiraGTx had seven other therapeutics in discovery/preclinical stages. The company was also developing a therapeutic for X-linked retinitis pigmentosa in collaboration with Janssen, which was in Phase III of clinical trials. 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 MeiraGTx partnered with the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management (IIRSM) in November 2022 to influence risk agendas, raise awareness, the standards of risk, and safety management across the industry.&nbsp;
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 Meira last raised funds in October 2023, when the company secured a strategic investment of USD 30 million from Sanofi. As part of the transaction, Sanofi was granted the right of first negotiation for MeiraGTx's gene regulation technology in certain targets.&nbsp;
 
 
 
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MeiraGTx

Companies producing cells, genes, tissues, and biomaterials such as exosomes and extracellular matrix for drug developers and pharmaceutical companies developing regenerative medicine

Companies conducting R&D on therapies that modify or introduce new genes into the body to treat diseases

Includes therapies that use cells (other than CAR-T and stem cells) such as Adipose-Derived Regenerative Cells (ADRCs), cardiosphere-derived cells, and gamma delta T cells (GDT cells)

Stem cell therapy involves using stem cells usually extracted from the bone marrow and umbilical cord blood to repair a variety of diseases

Startups in the hub consider individual patient profiles, involving variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle

Genomics helps understand the genetic information stored in the DNA to develop targeted treatments

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

<div>
 
 ArsenalBio, a company that develops cancer cell therapies, has successfully raised USD 325 million in an oversubscribed Series C funding round. Major participants included Milky Way Investments Group, Arch Venture Partners, and the venture branches of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Nvidia, and Bristol Myers Squibb. 
 The funds will aid in the development of experimental cancer cell therapies. This includes treatments for ovarian and kidney cancer which are currently in the early stages of testing. Additionally, the money will also support advanced research in collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb and Roche.
 
</div> Analyst QuickTake: 
 ArsenalBio's funding round is the fourth-largest among biotech startups this year and nearly twice the size of the next largest private investment in a cell therapy maker in 2024. The company’s previous Series B funding round in <a href="https: 
//www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/bms-backed-arsenal-bio-raises-220m-series-b-touting-potential-fleet-gene-edited-cell"> September 2022 </a> , which raised USD 220 million, marked one of the largest for the year. The company has brought two programs into human testing and could add a third for prostate cancer within the next few years.

ArsenalBio

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