Belgium-based drug developer Promethera Biosciences raised €20.3m ($25.4m) on Tuesday in a series C round that included the corporate venturing units of construction firm SMS Group and pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim.
SMS Investments and Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund were joined in the round by venture capital firm Vesalius Biocapital and Belgian federal public holding company SFPI-FPIM.
On top of the capital raise, Promethera also secured €5m from Walloon regional investment group Société Régionale d’Investissement de Wallonie (SRIW) in the form of loans and subsidies.
Promethera, a spin-out of Université Catholique de Louvain that is commercialising a range of therapies for liver diseases, previously raised €5.3m in a 2009 series A from SRIW and VC firms Vesalius Biocapital, Life Sciences Partners, NivelInvest, Capital & Croissance, LRM and Vives as well as Sopartec, the university’s technology transfer office.
The company then raised €17m in a 2012 series B that included Boehringer Ingelheim as well as drugs company Shire, Japan-based conglomerate Mitsui and bioprocess systems manufacturer ATMI. It aims to secure additional funding within the next few months.