Participated · Series B · Jan 2022

Korro Bio, headquartered in Cambridge, previously relied on a single clinical-stage drug that has since failed in trials. In November, the company responded by laying off 34% of its workforce. Despite the setback, Korro Bio has now secured new financing that extends its cash runway. Management says the additional capital will enable the company to progress its remaining preclinical assets to the point of generating clinical data. No specific revenue figures or user metrics were disclosed in the article. The company’s near-term focus is therefore on rebuilding its pipeline and regaining momentum after last year’s operational restructuring.

Participated · Series B · Aug 2021

Ranok has developed CHAMP (Chaperone-mediated Protein Degradation), a proprietary targeted protein degradation (TPD) platform that leverages the cellular chaperome network to selectively target disease tissues. The company positions CHAMP as differentiated from other degrader approaches such as PROTAC, with potential advantages in safety and efficacy. Ranok’s leadership includes industry veterans with deep experience in protein homeostasis and drug discovery. The company is advancing a most-advanced cancer program toward clinical trials in the near future and plans to expand its preclinical pipeline of CHAMP-based therapies. Ranok is based in Hangzhou, China and Greater Boston, Massachusetts, and intends to use new funding to accelerate R&D and candidate advancement. Financially, the company has disclosed a $40 million Series B and stated it has raised the equivalent of over $50 million to date.

Participated · Series C · Apr 2021

Laiye builds a unified platform for automating office workflows, combining conversational AI and robotic process automation to handle tasks from answering calls to processing documents. The company was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Beijing. Laiye reports that its consumer and SME products are already profitable, while its enterprise/Fortune 500 segment still requires substantial investment in product development and sales. It serves nearly 200 large corporate customers and works with global consultancies such as Deloitte and KPMG; its software is available on Microsoft Azure and Alibaba Cloud. The company claims a developer community of about 600,000 and currently generates roughly 20% of revenue outside China, with a goal to raise that to 50% by 2025 and to expand its international headcount similarly. Laiye has been hiring international executives to drive global expansion and picked Paris as a European base after acquiring chatbot provider Mindsay to accelerate language and product development. Laiye is a Beijing-based software company that develops robotic process automation (RPA) and chatbot products to mimic mundane workplace tasks like keyboard strokes and mouse clicks. Its RPA tools have been used to speed account reconciliation in Lanzhou by 75% and to automate national population census work in several southern Chinese cities. Laiye runs a free-to-use edition with over 400,000 developers and operates a bot marketplace connecting freelance developers with small businesses. The company said its RPA enterprise business achieved positive cash flow and its chatbot business turned profitable in the fourth quarter of 2020, and it has raised over $130 million to date. Laiye is led by Baidu veterans, employs about 400 staff globally with entities in China, Singapore and the U.S., and is expanding its footprint across Asia, the United States and Europe while hiring in Europe. Its stated plans include certifying at least one million software robot developers by 2025 and building the world’s largest bot marketplace within the next three years. Laiye builds an RPA platform called UiBot that automates routine enterprise tasks by mimicking human interactions and integrating AI capabilities such as NLP, OCR, computer vision, chatbots and machine learning. The company serves major tech firms and government agencies in China and counts Microsoft as an investor. UiBot is multilingual and has more than 200 partners and over 200,000 developers registered to use the platform. Laiye says it combines AI with human talent to scale automation projects and compete in a growing RPA market. The four-and-a-half-year-old startup has raised more than $100 million to date and will use new capital to hire global talent and expand its services and geographic reach. Laiye merged with Chinese RPA team Awesome Technology and launched UiBot in January as its RPA product offering. The company combines AI-enabled chatbots with RPA to let clients build bots with both “brains and hands.” Since UiBot’s launch it has collected about 300,000 downloads and 6,000 registered enterprise users. Corporate customers include Nike, Walmart, Wyeth, China Mobile and Ctrip. Laiye plans to use new funding to recruit R&D and sales talent, grow its AI capabilities beyond natural language processing, deep learning and reinforcement learning, and accelerate commercialization of its robotic solutions across industries.

Participated · Series A · Nov 2020

Founded in 2018 and based in Seattle and San Diego, Inipharm is advancing a pipeline of small-molecule therapies aimed at modulating the genetically validated target HSD17B13 for severe liver and related diseases. Its lead program seeks to mimic protective genetic variants of HSD17B13 and address inflammation and fibrosis common to many liver conditions. The company reports early discovery progress with CRO partner Jubilant Biosys and plans to advance its lead program through IND filing and into clinical trials. Inipharm is positioning small molecules as an alternative to RNA knockdown approaches for this target. The executive team includes co-founder and CEO Brian Farmer and CSO Heather Hsu, with other drug-discovery veterans leading pharmacology and chemistry.

Participated · Series B · Mar 2020

Akouos develops precision gene therapies for sensorineural hearing loss using an adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector-based platform. Its lead program, AK-OTOF, targets hearing loss caused by mutations in the otoferlin (OTOF) gene. The company plans to advance AK-OTOF to first-in-human clinical studies subject to IND filing and acceptance. Proceeds from its recent financing will also support establishing in-house GMP manufacturing at new offices in the Boston Seaport and accelerating multiple pipeline programs with well-defined mechanisms and gene targets. Akouos intends to expand its teams across research, clinical development, and manufacturing. The company has strategic partnerships with Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Lonza, Inc. Akouos is a precision genetic medicine company focused on developing targeted adeno-associated viral (AAV)-based gene therapies for sensorineural hearing loss, with an initial emphasis on monogenic forms that cause profound deafness. The company leverages a proprietary AAV gene therapy platform and has strategic partnerships with Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Lonza. Proceeds from a recent $50 million Series A will support advancement of its lead program to first-in-human clinical studies and accelerate multiple pipeline programs addressing other validated gene targets. Akouos has assembled clinical and scientific leadership, expanded its board, and formed a scientific advisory board composed of world-leading experts in gene therapy and hearing loss. The company states its approach aims to deliver one-time precision therapies to treat underlying genetic causes of hearing disorders. Akouos develops gene therapies aimed at restoring and preserving hearing and balance using in silico-designed Anc-AAV viral vectors. The company entered strategic license agreements with Lonza and Massachusetts Eye and Ear to obtain exclusive rights to the Anc-AAV gene therapy platform and broad sublicensing rights. Anc-AAVs were first developed in the laboratory of Dr. Luk H. Vandenberghe and are intended for application across hearing and balance disorders. Akouos was launched in 2017 by Dr. Manny Simons, who serves as CEO; its scientific founders and advisors include Drs. Michael McKenna, William Sewell, Richard Smith and Luk Vandenberghe. In conjunction with closing a $7.5M seed financing, the licensing and partnership framework is designed to accelerate AAV gene therapy development for hearing and balance conditions. Dr. Vandenberghe is a listed inventor on Anc-AAV intellectual property licensed to Lonza and Akouos and receives royalties.