US-based biopharmaceutical company Spero Therapeutics closed an oversubscribed $51.7m series C round on Wednesday led by GV, the early-stage investment vehicle of internet technology conglomerate Alphabet.
Partners Innovation Fund (PIF), SR One, MRL Ventures and Lundbeckfonden Ventures, respective subsidiaries of healthcare system Partners Healthcare and pharmaceutical firms GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co and Lundbeck, also contributed to the round, as did diversified conglomerate Kraft Group.
The corporates were joined by venture capital firm Atlas Venture, spinout-focused investment firm Osage University Partners and investment firms Rock Springs Capital and RA Capital Management.
Founded in 2013, Spero is working on therapies to fight so-called superbugs, forms of bacteria that are resistant to known antibiotics.
The company was co-founded by PIF and Atlas Venture to exploit research conducted by Laurence Rahme, associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and a microbiologist at the school’s teaching hospital Massachusetts General Hospital.
The series C capital will help Spero advance its pipeline as it seeks to move drug candidates into the clinic and advance its Potentiator program into later-stage trials.
Spero closed a $30m series B round in February 2016 backed by SR One, MRL, Lundbeckfonden, PIF, Kraft and Atlas after the same six investors had provided $30m in series A capital in 2015. SR One, PIF and Atlas also supplied $3m in seed funding in 2014.
Krishna Yeshwant, general partner at GV, said: “Spero is working on one of the greatest unmet needs in medicine – developing antibacterial treatments for some of the most resistant infections patients today.
“The company has assembled a team with the proven ability to bring new antibacterials to the market, and has made remarkable progress in building a differentiated pipeline in a short period of time.”