TreeFrog Therapeutics, a France-based stem cell therapy developer advancing research from Digital Photonics and Nanoscience Laboratory (LP2N), completed a $75m series B round yesterday featuring pharmaceutical firm Bristol Myers Squibb.
The round was led by BPIfrance’s Large Venture fund and included investment firm Leonard Green & Partners and XAnge, the venture capital arm of private equity group Siparex.
Founded in 2018, TreeFrog has created high-throughput cell encapsulation technology dubbed C-Stem which facilitates the mass production and differentiation of stem cells in industrial bioreactors, creating ready-to-transplant microtissues.
The company has set up a US subsidiary in conjunction with the series B round and co-founder Kevin Alessandri will relocate to Boston next year to oversee its operations in that market. It also plans to open a technology hub in Kobe, Japan.
Money has additionally been allocated to deploying TreeFrog’s technology for clinical-grade manufacturing and the expansion and advancement of its pipeline both through in-house programmes and in partnership with others.
TreeFrog expects to initiate its first human trial in 2024, having generated best-in-class preclinical results in an asset aimed at Parkinson’s disease, and has appointed Frederic Desdouits as chief executive. He had served as an independent board member since 2020.
Girish Pendse, executive director of process sciences and technology, cell therapy development and operations at Bristol Myers Squibb, will take a board observer role at the company while Laurent Higueret of Large Venture and Peter Zippelius of Leonard Green & Partners will get board seats.
TreeFrog had previously collected $7.8m in a 2019 series A round led by XAnge that included regional tech transfer office Aquitaine Science Transfert, Galia Gestion, Irdi Soridec Gestion and Aquiti Gestion.
The company had already secured $680,000 in seed financing in late 2018 from Aquiti Gestion, Irdi Soridec Gestion and private investor John Samson, after Aquitaine Science Transfert had supplied $1.4m for proof-of-concept and production preparations earlier that year.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.
