bit.bio raises $103 million in first close of Series B financing

Credit: bit.bio

bit.bio has announced the first close of their Series B financing of $103 million. New and existing institutional and strategic investors in the Series B round, thus far, include Arch Ventures, Charles River Laboratories, Foresite Capital, National Resilience, Inc. (Resilience), Metaplanet, Puhua Capital and Tencent.

The funding will accelerate the clinical development of the company’s proprietary cell coding technology opti-ox^TM – a breakthrough gene engineering approach that enables unlimited batches of any human cell to be manufactured consistently at scale through direct reprogramming of stem cells. 

It will also support the continued growth of the company’s ioCells product portfolio – where opti-ox^TM is used to create human cell products that are unique because they offer consistency at scale and the cells are highly defined. Access to ioCells enables bit.bio’s partners and customers to conduct translational research and drug development with physiologically relevant human cell models. Using human cells to bridge the translation gap in drug development will improve chances of clinical success and the potential to unlock a new generation of medicines.

bit.bio has already launched two products for research and drug discovery – glutamatergic neurons and skeletal myocytes – with disease models and other cell types to follow. 

bit.bio was founded in 2016 by Dr Mark Kotter from his labs at Cambridge University after his discovery of the opti-ox^TM technology. Co-founder Florian Schuster joined in 2018 as the company continued to grow and develop. The company now has over 130 employees and is headquartered in Cambridge, UK and San Francisco, US.

In July 2019, the company announced the closure of a $41.5 million Series A fundraise. 

The company recently expanded its board to include:

• Dr Hermann Hauser, serial entrepreneur, co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners and founder of semiconductor company, Arm Ltd, and gene-sequencing company, Solexa/Illumina, joins as chair of the board
• Sir Greg Winter, Nobel-winning scientist, and known for his work on monoclonal antibodies, is the founder of multiple successful biotech companies
• Alan Roemer, biotechnology entrepreneur who launched Pharmasset and Roivant Sciences, has raised over $1.75 billion in private and public capital and consummated five IPOs.