Date: 2013-12-17
Type of information: Series A financing round
Company: Crescendo Biologics (UK)
Investors: Innovations (UK), Astellas Venture Management (Japan), Sofinnova Partners (France)
Amount: £17.5 million (€20.7 million)
Funding type: series A financing round
Planned used: The funds raised will be used to advance Crescendo\'s in-house development programmes in inflammation and oncology utilising its best-in-class VH fragment discovery platform. Crescendo\'s technology platform produces next-generation, antibody-based therapeutic proteins that have exciting applications beyond the scope of full-length antibodies.
Others: * On December 17, 2013, the technology commercialisation and investment group Imperial Innovations Group plc has announced that it has led a £17.5 million (€20.7 million) Series A financing for new portfolio company Crescendo Biologics. Crescendo Biologics is a Cambridge-based developer of human antibody fragment therapeutics. The company is establishing an internal pipeline including a transformational topical biologic for psoriasis and products for oncology indications. These programmes draw on the power of Crescendo\'s discovery platform to rapidly create novel, high-value product candidates that address areas of significant medical need. Crescendo is additionally planning to enter strategic discovery partnerships with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and collaborate in the development of targeted biologics including antibody drug conjugates (ADC). Crescendo\'s technology is based on work carried out at the Babraham Institute and with links to the University of Cambridge. The management team is led by Mike Romanos, who has over 25 years\' biotech and pharmaceutical industry experience, including 10 years in R&D at GSK before moving to take leadership of Crescendo Biologics.
Innovations has committed £6.5m ($10m) in the round and was joined by new investor Astellas Venture Management as well as existing investor Sofinnova Partners. Following completion of the investment, Innovations will hold a 26.9% share in Crescendo.
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology - Inflammatory diseases
