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Finance Watch: Mega-Round Mania As RNA Therapeutics, Gene Editing Attract VC Cash

ReNAgade Raised $300m; ElevateBio Closed $401m Series D

 
• By Mandy Jackson

Private Company Edition: Two companies raised multiple hundreds of millions of dollars each helping to keep the number of $100m-plus venture capital mega-rounds on the rise in May. Also, Ascend raised $132.5m to make gene and cell therapies, and Nido emerged with $109m for neurological diseases.

Finance Watch Private Company
• Source: Shutterstock

After the year’s slow start, venture capital fundraising by drug developers has gotten a big boost in recent months, especially in May when two companies raised more than $700m between them – $300m for ReNAgade Therapeutics, Inc. and $401m for ElevateBio, LLC.

Key Takeaways

  • Mega-rounds (>$100m) have picked up after a slow start to the year, with seven total for January and February then seven each in March and April, and six so far in May.

There have been six $100m-plus VC mega-rounds announced by biopharmaceutical companies so far in May, and with a week to...

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