VC Roundup: Caribou Completes $30m Non-IPO CRISPR Financing; $205m In Cash For Five Others

Gene editing is all the rage in biotechnology these days, but Caribou Biosciences Inc. has taken a different path than its CRISPR peers by diversifying beyond therapeutics to agriculture, industrial and applied research. The company also has taken a different financing path – recently closing a $30m Series B venture capital round instead of pursuing an initial public offering.

Two of the most successful biotech IPOs so far in 2016 were completed by companies developing therapeutics with CRISPR/Cas9 technology – Intellia Therapeutics Inc. (co-founded by Caribou with a license to the company's intellectual property) and Editas Medicine Inc. (Also see "IPO Update: Intellia Launch Shows CRISPR Still Excites While Others Struggle" - Scrip, 8 May, 2016