Belgium-based cell therapy and regenerative medicine developer Promethera Biosciences closed €10m ($11m) in series C financing on Friday from investors including conglomerate Mitsui, pharmaceutical firm Boehringer Ingelheim and tissue engineering researcher LifeLiver.
Cell Innovation Partners, Vesalius Biocapital, the Government of Wallonia-backed SRIW, Fund+ and SMS Investments also took part in the round, as did Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, the venture capital arm of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
Mitsui and Boehringer Ingelheim invested through their MGI Global Fund and Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund subsidiaries respectively. Cell Innovation Partners is a joint venture between cell technology researcher Reprocell and financial services firm Shinsei Bank.
Founded in 2009 as a spinout from Université catholique de Louvain, Promethera is developing cell therapy and regenerative medicine drugs to treat liver disease. It will use the series C capital to expand its pipeline to include larger liver disease indications like acute-on-chronic liver failure or fibrosis.
Only €6m of the financing was new, according to Fierce Biotech, the other €4m having been raised in a €20.3m first tranche of the series C round in 2014.
Promethera had previously raised €28m across rounds in 2009 and 2012, the latter of which included Boehringer Ingelheim, Mitsui, pharmaceutical firm Shire and bioprocess system producer ATMI.