Singapore biotech start-up closes $125m Series C
Novo Holdings, which manages the wealth of Denmark’s Novo Nordisk Foundation, has led a $125 million Series C round for Hummingbird Bioscience, a Singapore and US-based drug developer.
Additional contributions came from US-based Frazier Healthcare Partners, Polaris Partners, Altium Capital Management, Ally Bridge Group, Octagon Capital, and Affinity Asset Advisors, European healthcare specialists Droia Ventures and Pureos Bioventures, and the corporate VC unit of biotech multinational Amgen.
Within Asia, support came from EDBI, the corporate investment arm of the Singapore government’s Economic Development Board, and Hong Kong-headquartered Morningside Ventures.
Several existing investors re-upped, including SK Group, Heritas Capital, Seeds Capital, and Mirae Asset Venture Capital. Hummingbird’s Series B closed at $19 million in December 2019 with Mirae Asset taking the lead. A $25 million extension, led by SK, was announced in May 2020.
Proceeds from the Series C will be used to support the development of the company’s pipeline of precision therapies for hard-to-drug targets.
Hummingbird has two treatments on course to begin clinical trials this year: HMBD-001, a monoclonal antibody that focuses on HER3, a protein regarded as a potent driver of tumor growth and resistance against cancer drugs; and HMBD-002, which neutralizes a checkpoint protein that promotes resistance to immunotherapy by suppressing T-cell activity.
HMBD-001 is a product of the company’s rational antibody discovery platform. This is a computationally guided platform that identifies the critical functional regions of a target protein, drives the production of antibodies that might mitigate the protein, and isolates the ones that successfully bind to it, thereby optimizing the therapeutic potential of a treatment.
Hummingbird is also developing a treatment for lupus and a T cell engager used against multiple myeloma, a plasma cell cancer.
“We believe that Hummingbird’s novel data-driven, systems biology approach brings new precision to the field of antibody drug discovery and development, and we are proud to support the team in realizing their vision,” said Kenneth Harrison, a partner at Novo Ventures, in a statement.
Novo Nordisk Foundation holds controlling stakes in diabetes care specialist Novo Nordisk and bioinnovation player Novozymes. It has $62 billion in assets, of which $19 billion is deployed in financial and life sciences investments. The life sciences portfolio is split into four strategies based on size and maturity, with $1-2 billion in new capital deployed each year.
Novo Holdings established an Asia life sciences investment team in Singapore last year, following the recruitment of Amit Kakar as regional head. A debut Asia investment came last month with participation in an $80 million Series C round for Indonesia healthcare technology provider Halodoc.
More on Southeast Asia
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.