Neuroscience firm Engrail bags $157M Series B funding for clinical development of therapies

San Diego-headquartered neurosciences firm Engrail Therapeutics has secured $157 million in Series B funding co-led by F-Prime Capital, Forbion, and Norwest Venture Partners. Healthcare investor Eights Road Ventures, RiverVest Venture Partners, and Red Tree Venture Capital also participated in the round.

The funding will propel Engrail to advance its pipeline through multiple stages of clinical development, the company said in a statement. It is developing therapies for the treatment of diseases with unmet medical needs, including anxiety disorders, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and rare neurodegenerative diseases.

Founded in 2019 by Vikram Sudarsan and Stephen Cunningham, Engrail offers solutions to patients with neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopment diseases. The team is primarily based in the US, with team members in India and Europe as well.

Stacie Weninger (F-Prime), Jasper Bos (Forbion), Tiba Aynechi. (Norwest), Niall O’Donnell (RiverVest), and Heath Lukatch (Red Tree) have joined Engrail's board of directors.

Sudarsan was previously the chief executive officer of pharmaceutical company Cipla, where he built a pipeline of branded products to treat CNS disorders and respiratory diseases. Prior to that, he was head of strategy at Cipla New Ventures. He has served on the boards of Stempeutics, Chase Pharmaceuticals, Cipla Technologies, and Cipla USA.

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“With strong financial backing from highly sophisticated and dedicated life science investors, we are well-positioned to deliver multiple value-creating milestones. Notably, we look forward to completing our ongoing ENX-102 phase II study in generalised anxiety disorder and advancing the rest of our pipeline into clinical development,” said Sudarsan, President and CEO of Engrail Therapeutics.

“Engrail was fortunate to have been incubated under a tremendous commitment from Pivotal Life Sciences. We are excited to start the next chapter of our journey with some of the best thought partners in neuroscience and life sciences investing in our success,” he added.

Peter Bisgaard, Chairman of Engrail’s board of directors and Managing Director at Pivotal Life Sciences, added, “We are proud to have started Engrail, which has progressed rapidly from an idea into a clinical-stage neuroscience company within just a few years. We have assembled a strong Series B syndicate that positions the organisation well for significant growth and pipeline advancement.”