Radiant Biotherapeutics, a preclinical biotechnology company, has received $35m in a Series A financing round, jointly led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Amplitude Ventures of Canada.
New investors BDC Capital, the investment arm of the Business Development Bank of Canada, through its Thrive Venture Fund, and investment fund managed by abrdn.
Other participants include existing investors FACIT, Alexandria Venture Investments and Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners (TIAP).
Established in 2020, Radiant is a biotechnology company that developed a multi-valent, multi-specific antibody platform, dubbed Multabody.
The biotechnology company intends to use the financing to further develop its lead clinical candidate, 4-1BB, and move it towards clinical trials.
Radiant president and CEO Arthur Fratamico said: “These supportive investors share our vision of delivering powerful, multi-functional biologics with the potential to advance treatments for patients suffering from debilitating and life-threatening illnesses.
“This investment enables us to further demonstrate the unique power and breadth of our platform across multiple therapeutic areas with a focus in oncology, inflammation and immunology, and global health and infectious disease including HIV.”
According to Radiant, Multabody therapies can overcome the limitations of existing antibody approaches by providing superior avidity, or binding strength, on their intended targets.
Multabodies offer multi-specificity, facilitating the targeting of different disease-modifying proteins, along with multiple epitopes on the same target.
Also, Multabody therapeutics provide potency against both solid tumours and blood cancers, infectious disease pathogens, and other targets in multiple therapeutic areas.
Amplitude Ventures principal Bharat Srinivasa said: “This financing will enable the next stage in Radiant’s growth and move the company towards the clinic as it continues to demonstrate the superiority of the Multabody platform against therapeutic targets that cannot be treated with traditional antibodies.
“We are investing to accelerate Radiant’s transition to clinical stage and to expand its pipeline in additional therapeutic areas.”
