Pharmaceutical company Luye Pharma led an $11.2m extension yesterday to a funding round being raised by US-based gene regulating drug developer Exicure that now stands at $31.3m.
The capital was provided through a private placement that also included venture capital firm Knoll Capital Management, Eager Info Investments and Purple Arch Ventures, a VC fund backed by alumni of Northwestern University, from which Exicure was spun out.
Katalyst Securities and private investor Mark Tompkins co-led the $20.1m first tranche of the round last month, with participation from biopharmaceutical company AbbVie’s corporate venturing subsidiary, AbbVie Ventures, Rathmann Family Foundation and other individual investors.
The spinout completed a reverse merger with shell company Max-1 Acquisition, which subsequently changed its name to Exicure, at the time of the first close.
Founded in 2009 as AuraSense Therapeutics, Exicure is developing treatments for inflammatory diseases, genetic disorders and cancer, using nanotechnology to build spherical nucleic acids that can enter cells without producing an immune response.
The technology is based on research conducted by Chad Mirkin at Northwestern University’s International Institute for Nanotechnology. Exicure said at the time of the first close that the capital would be used for research as well as preclinical and clinical development.
Abbott Biotech Ventures, the investment arm of healthcare group Abbott Laboratories, contributed to Exicure’s $5.4m series B round in 2012 alongside private backers.
Exicure, which had raised 2.5m in series A capital in 2009 on top of funding from the US government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, added an undisclosed amount from Abbott Biotech Ventures and various angel investors in 2013.
The company also closed an $18m series C round in February 2015 that included Rathmann Family Foundation and assorted angel investors, before adding $14.8m in October the same year, according to a securities filing.
– The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.