Japan's Luca Science secures $30m Series B
Luca Science, a Japanese biotech start-up focused on dysfunctional and damaged tissues and organs, has raised a USD 30.3m Series B round led by life sciences specialists 4BIO Capital and DCI Partners.
It marks the first investment in Japan for 4BIO, which is based in the UK. 4BIO had an existing presence in the country, however, through its partnership with drug maker Kyowa Kirin, an LP in one its funds. The VC firm said it intended to further evaluate “extensive investment opportunities in this innovation-rich market.”
DCI Partners is a biotech arm of Daiwa Corporate Investment that has raised at least three funds since 2014. The latest of these, a Taiwan-Japan focused vehicle, was launched in late 2020 with JPY 14b (USD 105.4m) in commitments from government-backed entities in both countries.
Additional incoming investors included Nissay Capital, Asahi Kasei Pharma, QB Capital, NCB Venture Capital, and SMBC Venture Capital. Existing backers Nippon Venture Capital, Fast Track Initiative, and Remiges Ventures re-upped. Nippon, Fast Track, and Remiges provided a USD 9.8m Series A in 2020 alongside local biotech specialist Axil Capital.
Luca is developing a new class of mitochondrial therapies related to cellular biology. Mitochondria are cell components that enable biochemical reactions and represent a source of energy in organisms. The idea is to use mitochondria as therapeutic agents for the repair of tissue and organs.
The company said its mitochondria can be incorporated into host cells and show improvement in bioenergetics profile in a matter of hours. Proposed use-case areas include obstetrics, respiratory, cardiovascular, central nervous system, immunology, and oncology.
The investment will be used for R&D, advancing pipeline projects, pursuing academic and industrial collaborations, and establishing a manufacturing system based on a proprietary mitochondrial isolation technology platform. Philippe Fauchet, a venture partner at 4BIO, will join the board.
“Luca Science has all the right ingredients to be an international success: it has the science, international team, and fantastic support from experienced investors,” Fauchet said in a statement. “Having operated in Japan for many years, I have witnessed the strength of the country’s cell and gene research and I am excited to help realise its potential through this investment.”
Nippon and SMBC were active in the local biotech space as recently as last month, when they backed a USD 31m Series C for cancer drug developer Chordia Therapeutics. Nippon, which counts life sciences among its core sectors, describes itself as one of Japan’s few large, independent VC firms. SMBC is a division of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group.
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