DotBio, a Singapore-based biopharmaceutical company, has bagged a $5.6-million pre-Series A financing round led by Proxima Ventures, Gaorong Capital, and AIM-HI Accelerator Fund, according to an announcement.
The round, which was oversubscribed, will support the company’s strategy to accelerate the development of its proprietary, multi-functional, and intracellular antibody molecules in oncology.
The funds will also be used to commence pre-clinical studies, including animal efficacy and chemical, manufacturing and controls studies, that will validate DotBio’s therapeutic candidates ahead of future clinical development.
“I’m pleased to work with the DotBio team at a time when new, multi-targeted therapeutic modalities are gaining global momentum and pushing the boundaries of what is possible in therapeutic discovery,” said Haolin Sung, partner at Proxima Ventures.
Proxima Ventures, a specialist seed-to-growth healthcare venture capital firm based in Shanghai, led the financing. With this investment, Sung, a serial biotech entrepreneur and partner at Proxima Ventures, joins DotBio as a member of the board.
Gaorong Capital, meanwhile, is focused on early and growth-stage investments, with a specialty in new consumption, new technology, and healthcare.
“We are making significant progress in developing intracellular antibody therapies, work that was highlighted in our Nature Communications publication in 2022. This round will allow us to accelerate these efforts, with the aim of revolutionising how we target intracellular oncogenes,” said Ignacio Asial, CEO at DotBio.
Founded in 2018, DotBio takes an innovative therapeutic approach towards the ideal treatment: the rapid prototyping of multi-functional antibodies to identify molecules with synergistic activity combinations, optimal architectures, and unique mechanisms of action.
Singapore has witnessed a series of deals in the biotech space recently. Most recently, Singapore-based biotechnology company Mirxes was reported to be still considering a listing on the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX), after it filed for an IPO on the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) last week, according to The Straits Times.
In July, Engine Biosciences, a Singapore- and Silicon Valley-based biotech company, raised $18 million in a new round backed by existing investors Polaris Partners and EDBI, according to its recent filings. The Series A-3 funding round was also joined by early-stage investor ClavystBio and investment firm Invus, the filings showed.
Earlier, Singapore-headquartered biotech company Lion TCR raised $40 million in a Series B2 funding round led by state investor Guangzhou Industrial Investment and Capital Operation Holding Group.