AbbVie Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of pharmaceutical firm AbbVie, co-led a $53m series A round for US-based immunotherapy developer Carisma Therapeutics today with venture capital firm HealthCap.
The round included MRL Ventures Fund, a subsidiary of pharmaceutical company Merck & Co, as well as Grazia Equity, Wellington Partners, TPG Biotech, IP Group, Agent Capital and Penn Medicine, the health system owned by University of Pennsylvania, from which Carisma was spun out.
Founded in 2016 as Carma Therapeutics, Carisma is working on immunotherapies that kill targeted cancer cells directly while generating an adaptive immune response. The company is initially focusing on solid tumours and aims to begin clinical development in 2019.
The series A funding will enable Carisma to expand its technology platform and move toward clinical trials.
Carisma had raised an undisclosed amount in a June 2017 round co-led by AbbVie Ventures and HealthCap that included IP Group and Grazia Equity. Penn Medicine was identified as a returning investor in the new round but details about its previous involvement are unclear.
Steven Kelly, chief executive of Carisma, said: “We are thrilled about the composition of our financing syndicate, which brings varied and deep experience in cell and gene therapy to further support our research and development efforts.”
– The orignal version of this story appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.