US-based biotechnology company Symic Biomedical raised $15m yesterday in a series A round led by Lilly Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of drugs company Eli Lilly.
The round also featured Mitsui Global Investment, a corporate venturing subsidiary of diversified conglomerate Mitsui, as well as Danish state-backed Den Danske Forskningsfond, Ally Bridge Group, InCube Ventures, Purdue Foundry Investment Fund, Mission Bay Capital, QB3 Partners and undisclosed individual investors.
The company previously raised almost $1.4m in a January 2014 seed round, after securing $850,000 in November 2013, according to regulatory filings.
Symic is working on a new category of therapeutics which target the non-cellular part of tissue. It will use the series A funding to advance its lead programmes into clinical trials, and to support collaborative relationships with other companies.
Armen Shanafelt, general partner at Lilly Ventures, said: “Lilly Ventures is excited to lead this financing as we believe the new category of therapeutics being developed by Symic have tremendous potential in a wide variety of clinical applications.
“By targeting the extracellular matrix, a fundamental component of human biology, Symic’s compounds provide a unique approach to treatment that cannot be addressed by other therapeutic modalities.”