Biotech, medtech ring in the holidays with $868m in private market deals

If anything could put a damper on the red-hot private market activity in healthcare, the Thanksgiving holiday did — so much so that we didn’t publish the Alts Watch Healthcare Beat (AWHB) roundup last week.

Our combined two-week recon tallied 13 deals valued at $868 million. And while the top deal in our previous AWHB roundups have been in the biotechnology sector, this time we have a digital health company leading the pack. Read on for the details!

Everlywell

• The deal: Oversubscribed $175 million Series D financing.
• The players: New investors including funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, The Chernin Group, Foresite Capital, Greenspring Associates, Lux Capital, Morningside Ventures and Portfolia, in addition to existing investors Goodwater Capital, Highland Capital Partners and Next Coast Ventures.
• The play: Austin, Texas-based Everlywell, which was pitched on ABC’s Shark Tank before launching in 2016, offers a suite of at-home tests for cholesterol, food sensitivity, allergies and thyroid issues, among other things. The company received in May emergency use authorization from the FDA for its COVID-19 Test Home Collection Kit.

ATAI Life Sciences

• The deal: $125 million Series C round
• Apeiron Investment Group co-led the round with the family office of ATAI’s founder, Christian Angermayer, along with Catalio Capital Management and tech billionaire Peter Thiel. The round also featured new investors including FalconEdge Capital and Pura Vida Pro, and existing investors Future Ventures and Galaxy Investment Partners.
• Germany-based ATAI will use the funds to advance its mental health pipeline, including programs in opioid use disorder and depression. The company differentiates itself from competitors thanks to its focus on psychedelic drugs (although its portfolio includes some non-psychedelics as well).

BioAge

• The deal: $90 million oversubscribed Series C financing
• The players: The round was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and serial entrepreneur Elad Gil; new investors included the AARP Foundation’s RockCreek Impact Fund and Phi-X Capital, the fund of genomics entrepreneur Mostafa Ronaghi, among others. Current investors included Caffeinated Capital, Redpoint Ventures, PEAR Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures and Felicis Ventures.
• The play: This Richmond, California-based biotechnology company is developing treatments for aging and aging-related diseases using an artificial intelligence-based approach.

Tallac Therapeutics

• The deal: $62 Million in Series A round
• The players: A raft of life science venture firms including venBio Partners, Morningside Venture, Lightstone Ventures, Matrix Partners China and MRL Ventures Fund.
• The play: Burlingame, California-based Tallac is developing immunotherapies for cancer using its Toll-like Receptor Agonist Antibody Conjugate (TRAAC) platform.

Noema Pharma

• The deal: 54 million Swiss francs ($60.5 million) Series A round
• The players: The Series A round was co-led by Sofinnova Partners and Polaris Partners, with the participation of new investors including Gilde Healthcare, Invus and BioMed Partners. Swiss Pharma giant Roche, which also participated in the round and has four product candidates licensed to Noema, received a shareholding position in the company.
• The play: Basel, Switzerland-based Noema Pharma is developing treatments for neurological conditions with severe unmet need, such as seizures in tuberous sclerosis complex, trigeminal neuralgia and Tourette syndrome.

Mitrassist Medical

• The deal: $50 million series unknown round
• The players: China-based groups ran the show as the round was led by Centurium Capital and CICC Capital, with CITIC Capital and 6 Dimension Capital also joining as new investors. Existing investors included Chinese pharma giant Fosun Pharmaand insurance company Ping-An.
• The play: Israel-based medtech firm Mitrassist developed a medical valve that is inserted into a catheter for patients with primary or secondary mitral regurgitation — a condition in which the heart’s mitral valve doesn’t close tightly, allowing blood to flow backward into the heart. The funding will aid the company’s plans to complete a clinical trial and get the product to market within two years.

Biosight

• The deal: $46 million Series C round
• The players: The Israel Biotech Fund led the round, with Biotel and two of Israel’s leading institutional investors, The Phoenix Insurance Company and Migdal Insurance Company, joining as new investors. Existing investors included Arkin Bio Ventures and Primera Capital.
• The play: Biosight is an Israel-based pharma developing innovative treatments for hematological malignancies and disorders, including some blood cancers.

Well Health

• The deal: $45 million Series C round
• The players: The funding round was led by Lead Edge Capital, with healthcare-focused venture capital firm Martin Ventures joining as a new investor. Existing investors Jackson Square Ventures, Health Velocity Capital, Summation Health Ventures, Structure Capital and Freestyle Capital were also along for the ride.
• The play: Santa Barbara, California-based digital health company Well Health developed technology that enables patients and healthcare organizations through engage in secure, multilingual messaging across various communications channels: texting, email, telephone and webchat

Wallaby Medical

• The deal: $45 million Series C round
• The players: GL Ventures, the venture capital arm of Hillhouse Capital, led the round, with participation by China’s own Sinovation Ventures.
• The play: A Shanghai-based medical device company with a wholly-owned subsidiary in Laguna Hills, California, already has a product, the Avenir Coil System, approved in the U.S., European Union and Japan for the treatment of stroke. The company plans to use to use the new funding (which comes right on the heels of a $20 million Series B in August) to further develop their product portfolio, as well boosting their plans for commercialization in China.

SynOx Therapeutics

• The deal: 37 million euro ($44.85 million) Series A round
• The players: HealthCap and Medicxi co-led the round, with new investors Forbion and Gimv participating.
• The play: Dublin, Ireland-based SynOx was recently spun out of Oxford, U.K.-based Celleron Therapeutic as vehicle to continue development of the antibody emactuzumab for the treatment of cancer. The company plans to use the funding to advance development of the compound for diffuse tenosynovial giant cell tumors.

CANbridge Pharmaceuticals

• The deal: $43 million Series E round
• The players: The round — which follows a $98 million Series C in February — was led by 3W Fund Management, which is based in China, as are new investors Casdin Capital, Summer Capital, SPDBI and Yaly Capital. Existing investors included Hudson Bay Capital Management, RA Capital Management, Hangzhou Tigermed Consulting Co. Ltd and LYFE Capital.
• The play: Beijing-based CANbridge is developing treatments for rare diseases and cancer. The firm recently received marketing approval in China for its first rare disease product, Hunterase, for the treatment of Hunter syndrome.

Catamaran Bio

• The deal: $42 million Series A round
• The players: Sofinnova Partners and Lightstone Ventures, with participation by founding investor SV Health Investors, plus Takeda Ventures and Astellas Venture Management.
• The play: Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Catamaran plans to use the funding to advance development of two chimeric antigen receptor natural killer cell therapies for cancer, as well as expanding its proprietary Tailwind platform for designing, genetically engineering, and manufacturing allogeneic CAR-NK cell therapies.

Kinaset Therapeutics

• The deal: $40 million Series A round
• The players: An investor syndicate bringing together 5AM Ventures, Atlas Venture and Gimv.
• The play: Medfield, Massachusetts-based Kinaset is focused on treatments for asthma and other respiratory diseases.