SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rubedo Life Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company committed to developing first-in-class therapies targeting senescent cells which drive age-related diseases, today announced the closing of a $12M Seed financing round. The round was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Longevity Fund, Refactor Capital, Shanda and additional investors.
The funding will be used to advance the company’s lead candidates in respiratory diseases with significant unmet medical need, such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In addition, Rubedo will advance preclinical candidates in oncology, followed by neurodegenerative conditions, skeletal muscle disorders and other age-related diseases. The company plans to advance several compounds into IND-enabling studies in pulmonary diseases starting next year.
“Rubedo has made remarkable progress and this seed investment will accelerate development of their clinical pipeline,” said Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures. “Rubedo brings a skilled team and unique approach to developing innovative new therapies for chronic age-related diseases, and we are excited to build on this momentum.”
“We’re delighted to attract such a strong group of investors, led by Khosla Ventures. This significant influx of financing will allow us to advance development of our pipeline, as we move our lead products toward clinical development,” said Marco Quarta, CEO & Co-Founder of Rubedo Life Sciences.
“We are impressed by the science, exceptional team, and the rate of progress at Rubedo under Marco’s leadership,” said Laura Deming, Managing Partner, Longevity Fund. “Our mission is to invest in world-class entrepreneurs developing therapeutic breakthroughs for age-related diseases and we're incredibly excited to see Rubedo's potential breakthrough treatments targeting fundamental processes in aging.”
“We were attracted to Rubedo by the speed of which the company is advancing multiple lead compounds into IND-enabling studies across different areas of unmet medical need,” said Zal Bilimoria, Managing Director, Refactor Capital. “We invest in companies solving fundamental human problems, and Rubedo’s in-house computational drug discovery platform has generated the design of novel first-in-class therapies customized for the elderly to tackle age-related diseases such as dementia and frailty syndrome.”
Rubedo’s proprietary ALEMBIC™ drug discovery platform, has generated a novel pipeline of therapeutic candidates which selectively target senescent cells, pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic cell populations that result from a variety of cellular stress and damage. Any cells in the human body can become “senescent” over time. While in this irreversible senescence state, cells remain metabolically active, but stop replicating and growing. Senescent cells release cytokines and other toxins into the bloodstream, driving chronic inflammation, which plays a key role in driving disease progression, in fibrotic diseases such as IPF, and tumor progression in cancer.
About Rubedo Life Sciences
Rubedo Life Sciences is a biopharmaceutical company developing a broad portfolio of innovative therapies engineered to target cells which drive chronic age-related diseases. Our proprietary ALEMBIC™ drug discovery platform has engineered novel first-in-class small molecules designed to selectively target senescent cells, which play a key role in the progression of pulmonary, oncological, neurodegenerative, fibrotic and other chronic disorders. The Rubedo leadership team is composed of industry leaders and early pioneers in chemistry, technology, and life sciences, with expertise in drug development and commercialization from both large pharma and leading biotech companies. The company is based in Sunnyvale, CA. For additional information, please visit www.rubedolife.com.
