Biotech startup DotBio raises US$5.6 million pre-Series A round
Daphne Yow
SEEDS Capital-backed biopharmaceutical company DotBio has raised US$5.6 million in a pre-series A funding round, it said on Monday (Aug 7).
Chinese venture capital firms Proxima Ventures and Gaorong Capital led the round.
They were joined by life sciences investor Chaperone Investment, animal immunotherapy startup Protect Biotech, and US-based not-for-profit organisation AIM-HI Accelerator Fund, which focuses on technologies and therapies for cancer.
DotBio, which specialises in antibody therapies, said it will use the funds to start its pre-clinical studies in areas such as animal efficacy, as well as chemical, manufacturing and controls, to validate its therapeutic candidates before future clinical development.
It will also scale up and automate its proprietary modular DotBody platform to enable the screening of thousands of multi-functional antibody prototypes to conduct research on new drugs and therapies for cancer treatment.
Ignacio Asial, DotBio’s chief executive, said the financing round will allow the startup to “accelerate the development of our internal pipeline of multi-functional antibodies with the potential to treat a wide range of cancers and improve patient lives”.
Haolin Sung, partner at Proxima Ventures, will join DotBio’s board. Dr Beilin Le, executive director of Gaorong Capital’s healthcare division, will join as a board observer.
Dr Sujuan Ba, who is the co-founder and chief executive of AIM-HI Accelerator Fund and the president of the National Foundation for Cancer Research in the US, will join DotBio as a strategic adviser.
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