
No heel needed for Achilles
Not having any clinical data under its belt has not stopped Achilles Therapeutics from closing a series B financing round that puts it in UK biotech’s all-time top five venture capital raises. While the company will not disclose the valuation at which today’s £100m ($120m) series B raise was done this will likely stand in the hundreds of millions of dollars, representing a huge uplift for Syncona, its founding investor. Syncona’s last disclosed stake in the company, 69%, was carried at a valuation of just $28m. Achilles focuses on the development of unmodified, expanded, autologous TILs (tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes) targeting clonal neoantigens, and has a lead project, ATL001, that recently started clinical trials in melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer. Knowing Syncona’s views on the public markets, and the fact that the series B round was led by a new US fund, RA Capital, there can be little doubt that a Nasdaq IPO is in the works for Achilles.
The UK's biggest VC financings for UK biotech | |||
---|---|---|---|
Company | Investment ($m) | Date | Financing round |
Immunocore | 320.0 | Jul 2015 | Undisclosed |
Orchard Therapeutics | 150.0 | Aug 2018 | Series C |
Freeline Therapeutics | 123.9 | Jun 2018 | Series B |
Achilles Therapeutics | 119.9 | Sep 2019 | Series B |
Mereo Biopharma | 119.0 | Jul 2015 | Series A |
Benevolentai | 115.0 | Apr 2018 | Undisclosed |
Orchard Therapeutics | 112.2 | Dec 2017 | Series B |
Adaptimmune | 104.0 | Sep 2014 | Series A |
Archimedes Pharma | 100.0 | Mar 2010 | Undisclosed |
Kymab | 100.0 | Nov 2016 | Series C |
Source: EvaluatePharma. |