Somite Therapeutics Announces Round Extension with Astellas Venture Management and Montage Ventures Joining as Board Observers

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Sep 03, 2024, 09:00 ET

To comply with academic institution guidelines, the founders' academic affiliations and roles are listed only at the end of the statement.

BOSTON, Sept. 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Somite Therapeutics, a fully integrated TechBio company leveraging big data and AI to introduce novel cell replacement therapies, today announced a $4.8M extension of its pre-seed round, only 6 months after the initial raise, bringing total funds raised to over $10M.

"With most of the funds still in the bank, we were not planning to fundraise until 2025," noted Dr. Micha Breakstone, Founder and CEO of Somite Therapeutics. "However, when Astellas Venture Management and Montage Ventures approached us, it was clear that they could add significant strategic value. Astellas Pharma and Astellas Institute for Regenerative Medicine (a wholly owned subsidiary of Astellas, "AIRM") focus on regenerative medicine and cell therapy research in ophthalmology and other therapeutic areas that have few or no available treatment options, while Montage Ventures has built a robust thesis and has deep insights into this space, so we decided to extend the round."

The additional funding will be used to expedite data generation to train Somite's AI platform, AlphaStem, advance SMT-M01 toward the clinic, start a second clinical program, SMT-B01, using brown adipocytes to treat metabolic disorders, and begin research with hypoimmune cell lines.

"We are thrilled to partner with Somite and support their innovative approach to AI-driven cell therapies," said Dr. Nagisa Sakurai, Senior Investment Manager at Astellas Venture Management, who will be joining Somite as a Board Observer. "Somite's work in vertically integrated AI-driven cell therapy aligns perfectly with Astellas' focus. We see great potential for impactful synergies between our companies."

"Among numerous companies in the TechBio space, Somite stood out as the most aligned with our vision of AI-driven novel therapeutic modalities," said Dr. Daphne Che, who will also be joining Somite as a Board Observer. "We firmly believe that Somite will emerge as a leader in fully integrated AI-driven cell therapy."

Additional investors joining the round include Nachum Shamir, former Chairman and CEO of Luminex, and Paul and Dr. Kendra Harris, a renowned clinician with extensive experience in clinical trials, who will also be joining Somite's Scientific Advisory Board.

About Somite

Somite.ai is a venture-backed company aiming to become the OpenAI of stem cell biology, developing AI foundation models to produce human tissue for cell therapies at scale for diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and muscular dystrophies. Somite's AI platform, AlphaStem, fuels a virtuous cycle: It enables new cell therapies, generating massive data that further improve the platform, empowering even faster therapy creation with broader applications. The company's pipeline includes the promising SMT-M01 program for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and the SMT-B01 program for metabolic disorders. Incorporated in Oct. 2023, Somite.ai has raised over $10m to date.

Somite Management Team:

Micha Breakstone, PhD: CEO and Co-founder - Repeat AI entrepreneur (Chorus.ai acq. for $575m)
Jonathan Rosenfeld, PhD: CTO and Co-founder - Head of the Fundamental AI group at MIT FutureTech
Carl Morris, PhD: Chief Scientific Officer
Kristy Brown, PhD: SVP Translational Development
Shai Kivity, VP Strategy & Operations

Scientific Co-founders:

Olivier Pourquie, PhD: Professor of Genetics and Pathology, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital
Allon Klein, PhD: Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School
Cliff Tabin, PhD: Chair of the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School
Jay Shendure, PhD: HHMI Professor of Genome Sciences at University of Washington

Media Contact: [email protected]
Website: www.somite.ai

SOURCE Somite Therapeutics