Mission BioCapital Announces First Winners of Platinum Program and Inaugural Service Sponsors

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Oct 30, 2024, 08:00 ET

— Pilot & first-year Platinum Program has provided eight companies pre-seed funding totaling
$3.5 million, lab space, and mentorship and is now offering drug discovery and corporate advisory services from new sponsors Alloy Therapeutics, Goodwin, and van den Boom & Associates —

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Mission BioCapital (MBC) announced today the first eight investments supported by the Platinum Program, a competitive process managed by MBC to accelerate the launch and initial development of high-potential life sciences start-up companies by providing funding, global laboratory space, expert mentorship, and discovery services.

The following six investments were made through the 2023 Mission BioCapital Platinum Program:

Babylon Biosciences (San Francisco) is focused on discovering and developing small-molecule therapeutics to treat Alzheimer's disease.

Bullseye Biosciences (Cambridge, MA) is revolutionizing drug development through robotics and evolution to target challenging drivers of cardiometabolic inflammatory diseases and oncology.

Cloverleaf Bio (New Haven) is a Yale spinout developing a new platform of engineered tRNA therapeutics to improve patient outcomes in oncology.

Nucyrna Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA) aims to refine RNA-targeting therapeutics based on a novel oligonucleotide platform, with an initial focus on CNS diseases.

Umlaut.Bio (Heidelberg, Germany), a spinout of the European Molecule Biology Laboratory (EMBL), is pursuing tRNA targets for treatment of cancer and immunological diseases.

Velocity Bio (San Carlos, CA) is a Stanford University spinout developing high-throughput platforms capable of selectivity-first allosteric drug discovery for under-drugged human enzymes implicated in devastating diseases.

Mission BioCapital's pilot Platinum Program in 2022 resulted in the following two investments:

TippingPoint Biosciences (San Francisco) is a UCSF spinout developing a drug discovery platform to identify treatments for diseases caused by defects in DNA packaging, including several hard-to-treat cancers.

Integrated Biosciences (San Carlos, CA) is combining synthetic biology and machine learning to discover small-molecule therapeutics targeting aging and age-related diseases.

Winners to date have received a combined $3,500,000 in pre-seed capital, a lab bench in one of Mission BioCapital's affiliated incubators located in 14 markets across in the U.S. and Europe, and strategic scientific and business development mentorship provided by experts from the program's founding sponsors, Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly), Ono Venture Investment (ONO), and MBC.

"Now in its third year, we have been so pleased with the number of high-potential, visionary life sciences founders that have applied to the competition from around the globe," said Jennifer Griffin, Ph.D., Partner, Mission BioCapital. "We are proud to support early-stage innovation with critical capital, turnkey infrastructure, and strategic mentoring alongside our partners, Lilly and ONO. We thank them for their shared vision and resources that have enabled the program to scale its impact for biotech founders."

Applications for 2023 were submitted from around the world, including 12 countries and 31 U.S. states. A panel of judges comprising the MBC investment team and senior executives from Lilly and ONO reviewed the submissions and identified 15 finalists to pitch to the partnership, which selected six companies developing novel solutions for patients.

Mission BioCapital continued to scale the Platinum Program's impact in 2024 by introducing "preferred service" sponsors, welcoming new partners Alloy Therapeutics, Goodwin Procter LLP, and van den Boom & Associates, which have committed to offering complementary drug discovery services, general counsel, and accounting services, respectively, to future winners.

"It's extremely gratifying to watch our Platinum Program grow, thanks in large part to our sponsors," said Steve Tregay, Ph.D., Managing General Partner, Mission BioCapital. "Our second annual competition tripled the seed funding amounts while greatly expanding the program's geographic reach to find new talent and innovations outside of the major San Francisco and Boston biotechnology hubs. The addition of the new sponsors further augments the program by facilitating access to services that are critical for early-stage biotech companies."

"Accelerating innovation by partnering our drug discovery expertise with the novel ideas of early-stage biotech companies is at the heart of what we do," said Errik Anderson, CEO and Founder of Alloy Therapeutics. "We're thrilled to partner with Mission BioCapital to enable biotech founders through the Platinum Program, providing support for the critical initial work to de-risk a company's lead candidate."

About the Mission BioCapital Platinum Program
Mission BioCapital (MBC) established the Platinum Program in 2022 to enable entrepreneurs with breakthrough technologies from diverse backgrounds to quickly launch new companies. Platinum Program winners receive guaranteed laboratory space at MBC's partner incubators in the U.S. and Europe, access to world-class experts, lead candidate-enabling drug discovery services, and seed capital to quickly develop scientific data needed to obtain subsequent funding rounds. The program invites innovators from around the world, including academic scientists, to submit breakthrough biomedical innovations that have the potential to advance patient care. In its first two years, the Mission BioCapital Platinum Program has awarded a total of $3.5 million, incubator space, and business mentoring to eight life sciences companies located in two countries and three U.S. states. For more information about the Mission BioCapital Platinum Program, please visit www.missionbiocapital.com/platinumprogram.

About Mission BioCapital
Mission BioCapital is a venture capital firm focused on making pivotal early-stage investments in life sciences companies. We support our portfolio companies through a unique combination of shared lab space, capital investment, and access to strategic partners. With offices in the nation's leading life sciences clusters in Cambridge, MA and San Francisco, Mission BioCapital is dedicated to helping entrepreneurial scientists build successful companies, from idea to exit. Learn more at missionbiocapital.com.

Contact:
Mary Moynihan
M2Friend Biocommunications
+1 (802) 951-9600
[email protected]

SOURCE Mission BioCapital