Tubulis has closed a €308 million financing round. This is said to be the largest Series C financing round ever for a European biotech and the largest worldwide for a private ADC developer.
The round was led by Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners. New investors such as Wellington Management and Ascenta Capital, as well as existing investors such as Nextech Invest, EQT Life Sciences, Frazier Life Sciences, Andera Partners, Deep Track Capital, Bayern Kapital, Fund+, Occident, Seventure Partners, and High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) also participated.
ADCs represent a form of cancer treatment that attacks cancer cells more specifically than many commonly used therapeutics. Furthermore, they do not damage the surrounding tissue because the active ingredient is combined with an antibody that can distinguish cancer cells from healthy cells. This allows ADCs to not only fight cancer more precisely and efficiently, but also significantly reduce side effects. Previous ADCs often lost a large portion of their active ingredients before reaching the tumor cell. ADCs of tubules bring them to their destination more reliably.
Tubulis: Focus on clinical development
With the fresh capital, the Pursueto accelerate the clinical development of its lead ADC candidate, TUB-040. The drug targets an antigen that is overexpressed in ovarian cancer and lung adenocarcinoma. Furthermore, the startup, founded in 2019, plans to expand its pipeline with additional candidates such as TUB-030. The funding will also be used to further develop Tubulis' technology platform for the development of additional, flexibly adaptable ADCs.
"This significant financing round underscores the confidence of our international, industry-specific investor consortium and simultaneously represents the disruptive potential of our ADC platform. With the current progress in the development of TUB-040 and the initial data on this candidate, we are ready to expand it into additional treatment lines while further expanding our candidate pipeline and technology platform. This financing round enables us to realize our vision of developing differentiated ADCs tailored to the respective tumor indication and with the potential to offer patients high therapeutic added value."
says Dominik Schumacher, CEO and co-founder of Tubulis.
Bayern Kapital first invested in the biotech startup in 2020 and continues to maintain its role as an existing investor. Monika Steger, Managing Director of Bayern Kapital, emphasizes:
"Tubulis is not only technologically interesting to us, but also exemplifies the capabilities of Bayern Kapital: We invest in early stages, remain on board as anchor investors for the long term, and support high-tech and deep-tech companies like Tubulis through to internationally visible mega-rounds. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with the excellent founding team and a top-class investor consortium."
Frank Hensel, Principal at HTGF, commented:
"Our relationship with Tubulis has always been built on trust and a shared goal of redefining oncology treatment. This latest financing round, supported by leading global investors, confirms the strength of the platform and team. We are proud to continue supporting Tubulis as the company enters a pivotal phase of clinical development."
