MORRISVILLE – Triangle area cell therapy startup Inceptor Bio formally announced that it has closed the biotechnology firm’s Series A fundraising round, with $37 million in equity funding.
The round was led by Kineticos Ventures, which is affiliated with one of the company’s seed-stage investors.
According to a statement from the company, the funding will enable the company to advance its lead program, known as CAR-T, to a Phase I clinical trial. Funding will also be allocated to continued development of CAR-M and CAR-NK, the statement noted.
“This Series A funding allows us to focus on advancing our lead CAR-T program into the clinic while
continuing to advance our other exciting cell therapy platforms,” said Mike Nicholson, Ph.D., president and chief operating officer of Inceptor Bio, in a statement.
These platforms are “at the center of a diversified portfolio of cell therapies,” the company statement notes. The therapies are aimed at enhancing cell performance in the tumor microenvironment.
Inceptor Bio launches advanced manufacturing platform to treat cancers
Next generation of cell therapy?
In June 2021, the company launched what it calls AMP+, an advanced manufacturing platform following $26 million in seed funding from the Kineticos Disruptor Fund. The therapies focus on strengthening immune cell performance where cancer is found.
“Investing in early life sciences companies with promising pipelines like Inceptor Bio is at the heart of what we do,” said Frank Lis, president of Kineticos Ventures, in a statement. “With an expert team and a scalable manufacturing facility, Inceptor Bio is well positioned to advance next-generation cell therapy technologies to address difficult-to-treat cancers.”
And, prior reporting from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center notes that the company’s operational model is itself novel, in that it “envisions a “family” of biotech companies in a shared manufacturing facility.”
Meaning that each subsidiary functions independently, using novel skillsets in specific technologies to assist one another.
According to NCBiotech, the business model spans two decades, and the goal was to create and spin out 20 companies in 20 years.
WRAL TechWire reported that the company had raised more than $37.7 million in equity from nine investors in early March. A spokesperson for Inceptor Bio confirmed to WRAL TechWire that the company’s announcement, issued today, corresponds to that SEC filing on which WRAL TechWire’s reporting is based.
Raleigh’s Inceptor Bio raises $37.7M, could raise more than $60M
