US-based biotechnology company Atreca secured $56m in series A capital yesterday in a round featuring pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline.
The round was led by an unnamed healthcare fund and also featured the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Mission Bay Capital.
The round included a conversion of debt financing into series A shares by some investors. Although Atreca has not named these investors, the Gates Foundation obtained an unsecured convertible note in 2012.
Atreca’s platform analyses immune responses to a disease and uses that data to identify the antibodies that are responsible for a successful outcome. The company then creates treatments based on those findings.
The money will support further development and advancement of the company’s pipeline.
Trevor Mundel, president of global health at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said: “The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation believes that Atreca’s technology potentially has broad application for the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases that disproportionately affect the poorest people in the world, such as HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis.”