4BIO Capital Joins Investor Syndicate in CARISMA Therapeutics’ Second Closing of $59 Million Series B Round

Press Release

4BIO Capital Joins Investor Syndicate in CARISMA Therapeutics’ Second Closing of $59 Million Series B Round

1 March 2021

LONDON & BOSTON – 4BIO Capital (“4BIO” or “the Group”), an international venture capital firm focused solely on the advanced therapies sector, announced it has become an investor in CARISMA Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing innovative immunotherapies.

4BIO participated in the second closing of CARISMA’s $59 million Series B round, alongside founding investors IP Group, Inc. and Penn Medicine, joining the initial Series B investor syndicate of SymBiosis II, Solasta Ventures, Livzon Pharmaceuticals Group, AbbVie Ventures, HealthCap, Wellington Partners, TPG Biotech, Agent Capital and MRL Venture Fund.

The financing round will be used to advance CARISMA’s current pipeline and discovery programs, including the phase I clinical trial of its lead candidate, CT-0508, an anti-human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) targeted chimeric antigen receptor macrophage (CAR-M), which recently initiated trial enrollment and patient screening for the first-of-its-kind, first-in-human study of CT-0508.

The funding will also allow CARISMA to further develop its proprietary engineered-macrophage platform, continue pipeline expansion in cancer indications and enable the platform’s application to disease areas outside of cancer.

Dr. Dima Kuzmin, Managing Partner at 4BIO Capital, said: “We are delighted to be investing in such a unique and innovative company like CARISMA, as the team there strives to develop transformative therapies that will change the way we treat solid tumours. As CARISMA progresses the development of its lead candidate into phase I clinical trials, we are pleased to be supporting the Company’s ambitions alongside such a high quality investor syndicate.”

Steven Kelly, President and Chief Executive Officer at CARISMA Therapeutics, said: “We are pleased to receive additional support from one of our founding investors, IP Group, Inc., as well as Penn Medicine, and new participant,  4BIO Capital,  a fund committed to solely investing in advanced therapies. With our lead candidate, CT-0508, now officially in Phase I clinical trials, this additional funding puts CARISMA in an even stronger position in the field of immunotherapy as we advance our mission of evaluating the potential of engineered macrophages.”

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About 4BIO Capital

4BIO Capital is an international venture capital firm focused solely on the advanced therapies sector.

4BIO’s objective is to invest in, support, and grow early stage companies developing treatments in areas of high unmet medical need, with the ultimate goal of ensuring access to these potentially curative therapies for all patients. Specifically, it looks for viable, high-quality opportunities in cell and gene therapy, RNA-based therapy, targeted therapies, and the microbiome.

The 4BIO team comprises leading advanced therapy scientists and experienced life science investors who have collectively published over 250 scientific articles in prestigious academic journals including Nature, The Lancet, Cell, and the New England Journal of Medicine. 4BIO has both an unrivalled network within the advanced therapy sector and a unique understanding of the criteria that define a successful investment opportunity in this space.

For more information, please visit www.4biocapital.com

About CARISMA Therapeutics Inc.

CARISMA Therapeutics Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing a differentiated and proprietary cell therapy platform focused on engineered macrophages, cells that play a crucial role in both the innate and adaptive immune response. The first applications of the platform, developed in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania, are autologous chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-macrophages for the treatment of solid tumors. CARISMA Therapeutics is headquartered in Philadelphia, PA.

For more information, please visit www.carismatx.com