US-based microbiome therapeutics developer Finch Therapeutics closed a $53m series C round yesterday featuring medical services provider SymBiosis and quantitative trading firm Susquehanna International Group (SIG).
The corporates were joined by venture capital funds Trans-Pacific Technology Fund and OCV Partners, investment firms Avenir Growth Capital, Shumway Capital and Morgan Noble, and Willett Advisors, the philanthropic asset manager for businessman Michael Bloomberg.
Founded in 2014, Finch is working on drugs that will target collections of microbes in the body known as microbiota that have been linked with a number of indications.
The company’s main approach – dubbed full-spectrum microbiota (FSM) – aims to restore functional diversity within the targeted microbiome that may have been lost through exposure to antibiotics.
FSM underpins Finch’s lead drug candidate, CP101, an oral medicine for bowel infections known as clostridium difficile which are caused by microbiome disruption connected to antibiotics use. It is currently undergoing phase 2 clinical trials.
Finch has also created a second drug development platform in partnership with pharmaceutical firm Takeda Pharmaceuticals, where machine learning would support the design of human-derived microbes with medical properties.
The series C cash will fund further work on Finch’s product pipeline, including CP101 and an FSM-based therapy for autism spectrum disorder for which patients are being enrolled for phase 2 clinical tests, targeting potentially causative gastrointestinal disturbances.
Finch’s scientific co-founders include Thomas Borody, a professor at Australia-based research institute Centre for Digestive Diseases.
Avenir, Morgan Noble, Willett Advisors and Shumway Capital had already invested in Finch through an oversubscribed $36m series B round in March 2018 that included undisclosed additional participants.
Finch raised $5.6m the previous year in a series A round led by investment firm Flight Partners Management and backed by Anna Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation and private investors Neil and Anna Rasmussen.