Chinese biotech startups Neowise Biotechnology and Immunophage Biotech have each raised $29 million to advance their pipeline of products. Separately, Foxconn subsidiary Ennoconn Corporation has invested in Taiwan-based digital advertising company funP Innovation Group to fuel its Indonesia expansion.
Neowise raises Series A+ round to advance solid tumour treatment
Chinese biotech startup Neowise Biotechnology has secured nearly 200 million yuan ($29 million) in a Series A+ round of financing to advance the treatment of solid tumours.
The Series A+ round attracted a range of domestic investors in China, including the country’s publicly-listed urban mining and new energy material firm GEM Co Ltd, said HaoYue Capital in a post on its WeChat official account on Wednesday. The Shanghai-based investment bank served as the exclusive financial adviser to the deal.
China-focused venture capital companies like Marathon Venture Partners, Oriza Seed Fund Management, Orange Land Capital, Zhongxin Capital, and LeaderVC — all of which specialise in the healthcare sector — participated in the Series A+ round.
Suzhou-based Neowise was created in 2020 to develop T-cell receptor-based therapy (TCR-T) for the treatment of solid tumours.
Previously, Neowise has raised a total of over 100 million yuan ($14.5 million) from two funding rounds. The earlier deals include a Series A round led by life sciences-focused VC TF Capital with participation from state-owned drugmaker Sinopharm’s investment arm as well as an angel round from Baidu’s VC unit Baidu Ventures and drug discovery firm BioMap.
Immunophage closes $29m from equity, debt financing
Immunophage Biotech, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical startup based in eastern China’s Nanjing City, has raised nearly 200 million yuan ($29 million) from a combination of equity and debt financing, the startup announced on Tuesday.
The new financing includes capital raised from its Series B1 round led by ZBJL Capital, a technology-focused equity investment firm in Beijing. Investment bank InvesTarget served as the financial adviser to the deal.
Founded in 2016, Immunophage operates as a drug R&D firm dedicated to the discovery and development of innovative drugs for novel therapeutic targets. It targets to develop first-in-class drugs to treat major diseases such as cancers, autoimmune diseases, metabolic diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases with unmet medical needs.
The fresh capital is expected to help fund the Phase I and Phase II clinical trials of the firm’s drug candidates.
Immunophage launched a global R&D centre in Shanghai in 2018 and set up two wholly-owned subsidiaries in Sydney and San Francisco in 2021 to support its clinical research and business growth outside of China.
The startup raised 100 million yuan in a Series A+ round co-led by Chinese investors Med-Fine Capital and Yijing Capital in September 2021. Earlier the same year, it closed its Series A round at 200 million yuan from lead investors LC Ventures, which focuses on investing in novel drug development, and Hong Kong-listed biotech firm Shanghai Junshi Biosciences.
Foxconn’s Ennoconn invests in Taiwan-based digital advertising firm
Apple Inc supplier Foxconn’s subsidiary, Ennoconn Corporation, has invested $3.12 million in funP Innovation Group to help the Taiwan-based digital advertising company expand in Indonesia and other Asia-Pacific countries.
As part of the deal, Ennoconn, an industrial motherboard designer and hardware system solution provider listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, will partner with funP and help the investee roll out its smart retail and cloud services solutions in these markets under funP’s business unit, cacaFly.
“Ennoconn’s capabilities in AIoT (artificial intelligence of things), together with our own in cloud computing and marketing technology, equal the opportunity to develop pioneering retail solutions for Indonesia and beyond,” said Brian Yang, funP’s co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, in a statement.
This new partnership came after funP’s earlier inroads into Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s most populous country, where the local authority is ramping up efforts to digitise the economy by increasing investments in cloud computing and 5G.
In June 2022, funP’s subsidiary cacaFly set up a joint venture with Jakarta-based PT Metrodata Electronics to offer data-driven marketing solutions in the market. Its marketing AI subsidiary TenMax also built an Indonesian office last year after helping the regional superapp Gojek develop its one-stop digital advertising platform, Gojek Ads Network.