Biotech firm SanegeneBio has secured $80 million in an extended Series A funding round led by Tencent and local healthcare-focused investment firm YuanBio Venture Capital.
The round saw participation from a slew of local investors including Northern Light Venture Capital, Xiamen C&D Emerging Industry Equity Investment, Oriza Holdings and Shenzhen Capital Group, according to a company announcement on Friday.
Existing shareholders Qiming Venture Partners, Alwin Capital, TF Capital, and K2VC have also re-upped in the round, per the announcement.
SanegeneBio, which specialises in developing innovative RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics, will use the proceeds to accelerate the Investigational New Drug (IND) application and clinical trials of its existing drug candidates.
Founded in 2021, SanegeneBio’s RNAi portfolio covers a broad range of therapeutic areas including cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, immunology-related diseases, and nervous system diseases, according to its website.
Besides its headquarters in Suzhou and Boston, Massachusetts, the firm has a clinical operation centre in Shanghai.
Biotech firms based in the Greater China region raised a total of $431.3 million across 38 deals in Q3 this year, according to DealStreetAsia’s proprietary data. The fundraising activities slowed significantly compared to the same quarter in 2022, when biotech firms raised a total of $1.8 billion across 69 deals.