Finance Watch: Biopharma Sees An Early April VC Mega-Round Surge

Merida, RayThera, Neurona, Glycomine Join Atsena, AIRNA

Private Company Edition: After Q1 venture capital investment slumped relative to 2024 totals due to declines in both smaller financings and mega-rounds, Q2 started off with six $100m-plus financings in the first half of April after there were only three in February and six in all off March.

Finance Watch Private Company — • Source: Shutterstock

The decline in venture capital investment in biopharmaceutical companies during the first quarter was driven by drops in both small VC funding rounds and $100m-plus mega-rounds, according to Evaluate Pharma data. However, the first two weeks of Q2 offered a glimmer of hope for privately funded drug developers, with six companies raising mega-rounds during the first half of April.

The number of VC rounds exceeding $100m so far this month is notable, because after January had a whopping 11 mega-rounds, there were only three in February and six in March, including $600m in artificial intelligence-powered drug discovery firm Isomorphic’s first external funding round, announced on 31 March. RNA editing specialist AIRNA Therapeutics followed with a $155m series B round on 1 April and Atsena Therapeutics revealed a

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