Montara Therapeutics is a San Francisco-based, preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company led by founder and CEO Nicholas T. Hertz, Ph.D. The company is developing its BrainOnly™ platform to improve the therapeutic index of CNS drugs by blocking peripheral side effects and enabling higher, more effective CNS dosing. Montara aims to create safer, more efficacious treatments for neurological diseases and to address major safety and tolerability challenges. The company closed a $20M seed expansion and the raise brought the total to $28M. In connection with the financing Troy E. Wilson, Ph.D., J.D., joined as an Independent Director and Chairman of the Board and is participating as an investor. Montara intends to use the funds to expand operations and its R&D efforts. Montara Therapeutics is a preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing brain-specific treatments to improve safety and efficacy for neurological diseases. Its core BrainOnly platform enables brain-specific pharmacology by using existing and novel chemical warheads to restrict deleterious on-target peripheral activity. The company is advancing a universal peripheral blocker and a neurological disease-targeting drug that has demonstrated clinical benefit but suffered severe dose-limiting peripheral side effects. Montara has initiated chemistry on subsequent programs for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and intends to use new capital to progress those programs. The BrainOnly technology is based on research from the Shokat Lab at UCSF, was published in Nature in 2022, and is exclusively licensed from UCSF. Montara was founded in 2023 by Nicholas T. Hertz, Ph.D., with scientific co-founders Kevan Shokat, Thomas Südhof, and Martin Kampmann, who will serve on its scientific advisory board. In July 2024 the company closed an $8M seed financing to advance its pipeline.

Total raised

$28M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Mar 2025