LAGUNA HILLS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Amberstone Biosciences (www.amberstonebio.com), an emerging biotherapeutics company with unique expertise in conditionally active immunotherapeutics, today announced the completion of a $12 million Series A financing round. The funding was led by Viva BioInnovator, Co-win Ventures and Sinovation Ventures, with additional support from ChangRong Capital, Lifespan Investments and existing shareholders.
Amberstone will use the proceeds from the financing to advance its highly differentiated tumor microenvironment activated therapeutic programs including bispecific antibodies and immunocytokines to the investigational new drug application (IND) enabling stage.
“We are tremendously grateful for the strong support from our new and existing investors,” said Amberstone Biosciences President and CEO, George Wu, PhD. “With our unique Tumor Microenvironment Activated Therapeutics (T-MATE™) programs, we aim to develop safer and more effective therapies to benefit cancer patients. The funding and broad expertise and resources in the field provided by our investors will take us another step closer to our mission.”
“Amberstone’s T-MATE therapeutic molecules enabled by its innovative single-cell discovery engine represents a real breakthrough in immune-oncology. We are thoroughly impressed by Amberstone team's rich experience in the cancer biology space. Viva is excited to work with Amberstone and syndicate partners to support its mission to provide next-generation innovative treatment options to patients,” said Han Dai, PhD, Chief Innovation Officer of Viva Biotech and Head of Viva BioInnovator.
“T cell immunotherapy has encountered great challenges in the complex microenvironment of solid tumors. The T-MATE molecules discovered through Amberstone’s world-leading cross-disciplinary drug discovery engine will break through the bottleneck of traditional methods and bring new hope to the treatment of solid tumors. Co-win Ventures is thrilled to work with Amberstone’s team and co-investors to explore the next generation of immunotherapies in solid tumors,” said Xin Huang, MD/PhD, a managing partner of Co-win Ventures.
“The expertise and strengths of Amberstone core team synergize well with one another. We are optimistic with the company’s uncapped growth potential. Amberstone exemplifies our firm’s investment strategy and mission to support deep-tech innovative entrepreneurs and companies,” said Sinovation Ventures’ partner in healthcare, Mr. Peter Wu.
About Amberstone Biosciences, Inc.
Incorporated in 2018, Amberstone Biosciences is an emerging biotherapeutics company developing a novel class of targeted and conditionally active immunotherapeutics to treat solid tumor cancers and other diseases. Amberstone Biosciences’ pipeline is driven by an innovative high-throughput single-cell functional discovery platform and strong expertise in an interdisciplinary field of biology, engineering, and therapeutic development. For more information, please visit www.amberstonebio.com.
About Viva BioInnovator
As the venture arm of Viva Biotech Holdings (1873.HK), Viva BioInnovator is dedicated to investing globally in biotech innovations that address unmet medical needs across multiple therapeutic areas. Leveraging Viva Biotech’s rich experience and technical advantages in novel drug R&D, Viva BioInnovator has built a strong track record in providing both cash and in-kind services (also called Equity for Services) to support its portfolio companies worldwide. For more information, please visit www.vivabioinnovator.com.
About Co-win Ventures
Founded in 2009, Co-win Ventures focuses on early-stage companies in healthcare and TMT sectors and advocates a team culture of equality, transparency, sharing and innovation. It has operated 17 independent US dollar and/or RMB funds and has invested in over 140 companies, including Taimei Medical Technology, Genecast, Huake Precision, Cytek (NASDAQ: CTKB), Connect (NASDAQ: CNTB), Thrive (NASDAQ: EXAS), InnoLight Technology (300308), Memsensing (688286), Eastsoft (300183), New Vision (000008), Aolian Electronics (300585), and Sanchao Advanced Material (300554) among others. For more information, visit www.cowinvc.com.
About Sinovation Ventures
Founded by Dr. Kai-Fu Lee in 2009, Sinovation Ventures is committed to nurturing the next wave of deep-tech entrepreneurs and companies. Sinovation is headquartered in Beijing and operates in multiple major cities. With over US$2.7 billion under management, Sinovation is a leading tech VC firm with a unique “TECH VC” model that is uniquely enhanced by its Artificial Intelligence Institute led by Dr. Lee. Sinovation invests in artificial intelligence, healthcare tech, robotics/automation, semiconductor, enterprise software, and digital lifestyle areas. To date, Sinovation has invested in over 400 companies. For more information, visit www.sinovationventures.com.
