Japan-based oncology drug developer Chordia Therapeutics has secured $27m in a series B round featuring financial services firms Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), Shinsei Bank, Mitsubishi UFJ and Kyoto Chuo Shinkin Bank.
The round was co-led by investment firm Jafco and university venture capital fund Innovation Kyoto 2016 (Kyoto iCap 1st Fund), and included VC firm Nippon Venture Capital.
The banks invested through VC subsidiaries SMBC Venture Capital, Shinsei Capital Partners, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and Chushin Venture Capital respectively.
Founded in late 2017 by six scientists who had worked at pharmaceutical firm Takeda, Chordia is developing cancer treatments based on intellectual property licensed from the drug producer.
The series B funding will support the progress of Chordia’s drug pipeline, which includes an adult T-cell leukaemia lymphoma treatment and a preclinical protein kinase inhibitor that could underpin another cancer drug.
Chordia had secured an undisclosed amount of series A funding from Takeda, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, SMBC Venture Capital and Kyoto University Innovation Capital (Kyoto iCap), which manages Kyoto-iCap 1st Fund, in 2017.
Kyoto iCap’s investment was made in connection with Seishi Ogawa, a professor at Kyoto University’s Department of Pathology and Tumour Biology, who is collaborating with Chordia.