Nizel Pradhan
Alternative Bio Inc. (“ABio”), a privately held biotechnology company developing novel therapeutics targeting a previously untapped class of post-translational modifying enzymes announced today its $15 million Series Seed financing co-led by Eight Roads Ventures with F-Prime Capital and Sequoia China Seed Fund. The funds will be used to leverage an innovative discovery platform and advance the company’s lead drug candidates to treat some of the most intractable cancers.
Alternative Bio is co-founded by world-renowned scientists with expertise in the areas of signaling, gene expression regulation, cancer biology, and drug discovery. The scientific co-founders are Fei Lan, Ph.D., Professor & Vice Dean of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at Fudan University; Yang Shi, Ph.D., Professor of Epigenetics, Oxford University and the Ludwig Cancer Research Institute, and member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine; and Or Gozani, M.D., Ph.D., the Morris Herzstein Professor of Biology at Stanford University. Drs. Lan, Shi and Gozani have published over 400 papers, including dozens of high impact studies with importance for human health and disease such as the seminal discovery from Dr. Shi’s group revealing LSD1 as a methyl eraser, overturning a long-held dogma in the field and establishing the dynamic nature of methylation signaling.
Research and insights from the co-founders’ labs have previously led to the launch of several biotech companies, including Constellation Pharmaceuticals (acquired by MorphoSys in 2021 for USD 1.7 Billion), with Dr. Shi as scientific co-founder and Dr. Lan as a founding scientist; K36 Therapeutics, with Drs. Gozani and Shi as scientific co-founders; and EpiCypher, Inc, with Dr. Gozani as a co-founder.
“There is remarkable potential to translate the three world-renowned scientists’ leading-edge discoveries into breakthrough therapies. Eight Roads Ventures together with F-Prime Capital aim to work with ABio to drive strong momentum advancing a novel class of drugs by translating groundbreaking biology into life-changing medicines for patients”, said Eight Roads partner Xin Liu.
Trency Gu, Managing Director of Sequoia China, stated “ABio has assembled a world-class team of biologists and serial founders. We are excited to participate in this new venture and look forward to working with the team to unfold the potential of an untapped target space”.
About Alternative Bio (“ABio”)
Alternative Bio’s mission is to translate the discovery of novel protein synthesis regulatory nodes into first-in-class precision medicines to treat the most challenging cancers. The company’s vision is to establish itself as a global pioneer in this new research space as it advances breakthrough therapies to benefit cancer patients worldwide.
About Sequoia China Seed Fund
Sequoia China Seed Fund is an early-stage fund initiated by Sequoia China to focus on seed and angel round investments. Since 2018, Sequoia China Seed Fund has invested in more than 300 startups, which represent early structural innovation in the fields of tech, healthcare and consumer, and grown several unicorn companies.
About Eight Roads Ventures / F-Prime Capital
Eight Roads is a global proprietary investment firm backed by Fidelity, managing over $11 billion of assets across offices in China, India, Japan, UK and the US. We focus on investing in early-to-early growth stage technology and healthcare companies.
F-Prime Capital, backed by Fidelity, is a global venture capital firm investing in healthcare and technology. For the past 50 years, our independent venture capital group has had the privilege of backing great entrepreneurs building iconic companies such as Denali, Beam, Innovent, Prime Medicine, Orchard, Iora, Devoted Health, and Ultragenyx.
