Biotech startup Immunoscape raises US$14m in funding

IMMUNOSCAPE, a biotech startup specialising in cancer treatment, has raised US$14 million to scale up its operations in Singapore and the US, as well as to improve its immune-profiling technology. This brings the startup’s total funding in the past year to S$25 million. 

Co-led by EDBI as well as existing investors US-based Anzu Partners and Japan-based University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners, the round will value the startup at about US$37.9 million, said data-intelligence platform VentureCap Insights. The EDBI investment was made through the S$285 million Special Situation Fund for Startups.

Founded in 2017, Immunoscape taps immune-profiling technology - assessing a snapshot of a person’s state of immune health - to provide insights to pharmaceutical companies and research institutes. These organisations, including the National Cancer Society and the John Hopkins University, then use the information to develop medications for cancer treatment.

Its platform allows for “high-dimensional immune profiling”, which is important because this clarity enables deeper insights into the body’s immune responses to develop more targeted treatments, chief executive Ng Choon Peng told The Business Times. “You would want to be sure that the treatment is precise. That is what developing safe and efficacious treatments are about.”

Fresh funds will be used to scale its team in Singapore and further its expansion into the US. It also aims to build up its San Diego laboratory to provide a closer touch point to its US collaborators such as California’s Genentech and Gilead, said Mr Ng. 

The spin-off company from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) also plans to recruit more local immunologists from A*Star, as well as bioinformaticians to help it analyse biological data, Mr Ng said. He added that the company aims to increase its headcount by 50 per cent by the end of the year.

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The startup will also be working to increase its capacity for in-house research and development (R&D) activities, while expanding partnerships in drug development efforts within the fields of immuno-oncology, infectious disease and autoimmune disease, it said.

With cancer still among the leading causes of death globally, ImmunoScape’s Mr Ng told BT previously that clear cancer treatment is still a huge "unmet need", with governments, capital markets and researchers staying invested in the field.

"By being involved in what we are doing, we are contributing to the discovery of new treatments because we offer immunological insights during clinical trials for our collaborators," he said then.

The company has a “highly differentiated platform that can change the way life-saving treatments are developed,” said David Michael, managing partner at investor Anzu Partners. 

READ MORE: Achieving breakthroughs in cancer treatment