October 31, 2014
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
More venture capital is pouring into the Bay Area, with San Francisco biotech Imago BioSciences, Inc. saying Friday that it has received $26.5 million in Series A financing led by Clarus Ventures.
Other participants included Frazier Healthcare, Amgen Venture and Merck Research Labs Venture Fund. As part of the financing deal, Clarus and Frazier will now put members on the company’s board of directors.
Imago focuses on developing technologies and therapies and the help alter gene expression patterns. So far, it has been centered on orphan diseases that involve genetic alterations, or diseases in which gene therapy can bring relief or a cure.Company executives said Friday they would use the new money to further fund its research and development.
“Imago BioSciences is extremely gratified with the makeup of this investment syndicate,” said Hugh Young Rienhoff, CEO of Imago BioSciences, in a statement.
“They comprise a group of experienced financial and strategic investors who provide financial support to progress our clinical development program in a direction important to patients and their physicians.”
Venture capitalists have been doubling down on biotech, according to new data released in October by the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters, which found that initial public offerings from the biotech sector accounted for more than half of the 23 deals done in the third quarter.
It was the sixth consecutive quarter with more than 20 IPOs, according to the NVCA 2014 Yearbook, prepared by Thomson Reuters, with 23 initial public offerings by venture-backed companies—13 of which were solely biotech firms.
An additional five were in the closely related field of health care.
Biotech was the second largest sector for venture investment in 2013, behind software. But it appears to be gaining, as VCs look for value in a white-hot biotech stock environment.
The data found that the third quarter was the strongest in terms of disclosed deal value since the same time period in 2012. Players taking their companies public also saw more bang for their buck, with an aggregate deal value of $7.9 billion, the third time since 2009 that metric has exceeded $7 billion.
