[Funding Alert] Biotechnology startup Zumutor Biologics raises $4M in Series A2 round

Biotechnology startup Zumutor Biologics on Thursday raised $4 million as part of its Series A2 funding led by new investor Bharat Innovation Fund (BIF). The round also saw participation from its existing investor Accel Partners.

With this round, the total funding raised by the startup stands at around $20 million.

The company had earlier raised capital from Chiratae Ventures, Aarin Capital, and Karnataka Information Technology Venture Capital Fund (KITVEN).

Speaking on the funding, Kavitha Iyer Rodrigues, Founder and CEO, Zumutor Biologics, said,

“Our first-in-class lead molecule ZM 008 has made industry validated progress and is poised for IND filing with Phase 1a/1b clinical trials likely to commence end 2020. Series A2 funding will enable pivotal milestones in development stages".

Founded in June 2015, Zumutor has developed two antibody engineering platforms to facilitate its programme for discovery and development of immunotherapies (for cancer) that have the potential to be novel best-in-class monotherapies, and core components of innovative combination treatments.

Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that helps a patient’s immune system fight cancer, while monotherapy uses one type of treatment to treat a certain disease. 

Speaking on the funding, Ashwin Raguraman, Founding Partner, Bharat Innovation Fund, said,  

"We are excited to back a world-class scientific team, a second time entrepreneur and a company developing immuno-therapeutic products using its proprietary platforms. The strong pipeline that Zumutor has developed, combined with a relatively differentiated NK cell approach, could lead to breakthrough treatments for multiple cancers”.

The startup’s growth strategy is focused on the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment to harness the power of Natural Killer cells to develop novel monoclonal antibodies.

Barath Shankar Subramanian, Partner at Accel, said,  

"Accel is excited to continue to partner with and support Zumutor in its quest to bring in transformational changes to the way cancer is treated”.

Although based in the US, the company has 25 strong cross-functional scientific team, which works seamlessly in a state-of-the-art R&D Lab in Bengaluru.

(Edited by Megha Reddy)

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