The Venture Codex

Participated · Series A · Mar 2025

Garuda Therapeutics develops proprietary hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) therapies designed to enable durable, self‑renewing, HLA‑compatible and transgene‑free blood stem cells that can be made available immediately for patients. The company is led by CEO Avanish Vellanki and is based in Cambridge, MA. Its technology focuses on producing HSCs that are human leukocyte antigen (HLA) compatible and transgene‑free. Garuda said its platform yields self‑renewing blood stem cells intended to be durable in patients. The company raised $50M in a Series A‑1 financing to advance its development. Garuda plans to use the proceeds to advance its pipeline into the clinic, assemble an experienced team, scale in‑house manufacturing, and support general operating activities. Garuda Therapeutics is developing an off-the-shelf platform to generate self-renewing blood stem cells intended to eliminate dependence on donor or patient cells for transplants. The company aims to provide consistent, durable, HLA-compatible and transgene-free blood stem cell therapies that could address more than 120 diseases. Garuda is advancing programs toward the clinic for hematological diseases and is developing an HSC-derived off-the-shelf durable immune cell program for oncology indications. It is also working on HLA-matched pluripotent stem cells to broaden patient eligibility and access to cellular therapies. The company is based in Cambridge, Mass., and highlights scalability, durability, and broader accessibility as core objectives. Garuda’s leadership includes Co-Founder and CEO Dhvanit Shah, Ph.D., and the company recently added Raymond J. Kelleher, M.D., Ph.D., to its board. Garuda Therapeutics is building an off-the-shelf platform to generate self-renewing, HLA-compatible, transgene-free blood stem cells intended to provide rapid and consistent access to durable stem cell therapies. The platform aims to remove reliance on donor or patient cells, potentially addressing limitations in scale, timeliness, durability, quality and safety of current blood stem cell material. Garuda positions its technology to broaden access to curative bone marrow–style therapies and to reduce match barriers faced by racial minority and mixed-race patients. Its pipeline targets hematologic malignancies, sickle cell disease, β-thalassemia, bone marrow failure diseases and other indications. Garuda launched with an oversubscribed $72 million Series A financing. The company was founded by Dhvanit Shah, Ph.D., and includes scientific founders and advisors such as David Scadden, M.D., and Sean Morrison, Ph.D.

Led · Series C · Mar 2023

Ring Therapeutics is a Cambridge, MA life sciences company developing gene therapies and nucleic acid medicines by harnessing the human commensal virome, specifically anelloviruses. The company has developed the Anellogy platform, which generates diverse vectors with tissue-specific tropism and the potential to be re-dosed. Ring says the platform could be applied to a broad range of diseases. Founded by Flagship Pioneering in 2017, the company is led by CEO Tuyen Ong and Co-Founder and Chairman Avak Kahvejian. Ring raised an $86.5M Series C that brought total capital raised to date to $230M. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and advance the Anellogy platform toward the clinic. Ring Therapeutics, founded by Flagship Labs in 2017 and based in Cambridge, Mass., develops anellovirus-based vector technologies under its Anellogy™ platform. The company has built a proprietary vector bioplatform to discover and vectorize commensal anelloviruses and produce programmable medicines called Anellovectors™. Anellovectors carry circular single-stranded DNA that is non-integrating, can be engineered for tissue-specific tropism, delivered through multiple routes, and potentially re-dosed without inducing adverse immune responses. The platform is positioned to support a broad spectrum of therapeutic modalities including gene therapies and nucleic acid medicines. Ring raised $117M in a Series B and intends to use the funds to continue development and expand the Anellogy platform. The company is led by CEO Dr. Tuyen Ong with Avak Kahvejian, Ph.D., serving as chairman.

Participated · Series C · Oct 2022

Cellarity applies single-cell technologies and proprietary deep learning models to identify cellular drivers of disease and design drugs against the cellular signature. The company links biology and chemistry with high-dimensional transcriptomic data to create medicines that target whole-cell dysfunction rather than single molecular targets. Founded by Flagship Pioneering in 2017 and based in Somerville, Mass., Cellarity has developed capabilities to unravel complex disease biology and reveal new biology for drug creation. The company reports compounds validated in vitro and in vivo, including in higher species, and has ongoing programs in metabolic disease, hematology, and immuno-oncology. Cellarity plans to use recent financing proceeds to grow its talent base, strengthen its platform, and advance its pipeline toward the clinic. To date the company has raised $274 million in total funding. Cellarity is a Cambridge, Mass.-based life sciences company founded in 2017 within Flagship Labs. It is developing a new method of drug discovery that targets the cell rather than a single molecular target. The company combines system and network biology, high-resolution data and machine learning to unlock treatments across multiple therapeutic areas. Cellarity is led by Fabrice Chouraqui, who serves as CEO of Cellarity and is a CEO-Partner at Flagship Pioneering. In February 2021 the company raised $123M in a Series B financing. The funds will support its platform and drug discovery efforts across its stated therapeutic focus areas.