Enara Bio raises $32.5 million Series B financing

Oxford, United Kingdom, October 3, 2024- Enara Bio today announces the closing of a $32.5 million Series B financing supported by a strong syndicate of new and existing biotech investors. The round was co-led by new investors, Pfizer Ventures and M Ventures, with participation from all existing investors including RA Capital, Samsara BioCapital and SV Health Investors. The Francis Crick Institute is also joining the round as a new investor. Enara Bio will use the proceeds to advance its pipeline of TCR-based immunotherapies against novel and differentiated Dark Antigen targets for solid tumors.

Kevin Pojasek, PhD., President & Chief Executive Officer of Enara Bio, said the following:

We are delighted to have the backing of these sophisticated investors as we strive to develop novel immunotherapies that can provide durable clinical benefit for broad populations of cancer patients. Earlier this year, our EDAPT platform received strong external validation when Boehringer Ingelheim decided to exercise its option to license multiple Dark Antigens to develop off-the-shelf immunotherapies for lung cancer. The fundraise we are announcing today, led by two new strategic investors, reflects the quality of our science and further underlines not only the groundbreaking potential of Dark Antigens, but also our internal pipeline of first-in-class immunotherapies.

In connection with the financing, Enara Bio’s Board of Directors has been strengthened by the appointments of Rana Al-Hallaq, Partner at Pfizer Ventures, and Bauke Anninga, Investment Director at M Ventures.

“Despite major breakthroughs in cancer immunotherapy over the last decade, only a minority of patients with solid tumors receive durable benefit from existing treatments,” commented Rana Al-Hallaq, Ph.D., Partner at Pfizer Ventures. “Dark Antigens may unlock the potential of immunotherapy for many additional patients with solid tumors, and we are pleased to support Enara’s development of this cutting-edge platform to discover and validate these previously untapped targets."

Bauke Anninga, Ph.D., Investment Director at M Ventures, said: 

We are pleased to co-lead this funding round as Enara’s EDAPT platform has already discovered a series of attractive Dark Antigen targets that are shared across solid tumor patients with high unmet needs. We have been impressed by Enara’s high caliber team and world-class expertise in developing TCR-based therapies. We are excited at the progress already made building a pipeline of differentiated therapies that could provide transformational clinical benefit to patients who are poorly served by today’s cancer immunotherapies.