Outpace Bio, a cell therapy company using unrivalled AI-powered protein design to programme immune cells for improved function inside patients battling solid tumours, has raised $144 million in an oversubscribed Series B financing.
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The Series B financing brings the total capital raised by Outpace Bio to approximately $200 million and was led by RA Capital Management, with participation from new investors Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company), Sheatree Capital, Black Opal Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments, and other undisclosed investors. Outpace’s existing investors, ARTIS Ventures, Playground Global, Bristol Myers Squibb, Abstract Ventures, Civilisation Ventures, Mubadala Capital, Breton Capital Ventures, WRF Capital, and Sahsen Ventures, also participated in the financing.
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Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance multiple programmed T cell product candidates to early clinical proof-of-concept for the treatment of solid tumors. The company’s lead programme, OPB-101, is a mesothelin-specific chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell enhanced by Outpace’s proprietary OUTSMART, OUTLAST, OUTSPACER, and OUTSAFE technologies, which is on track for IND clearance and first dosing in 2025 for patients with advanced platinum-resistant epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer. Additionally, the funds will support the expansion of Outpace’s future pipeline, leveraging the company’s powerful plug-and-play technology platform.
“We are grateful for the support and partnership of an outstanding syndicate of top-tier investors who share our vision,” said Marc Lajoie, PhD, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Outpace. “At our founding, we set out to build groundbreaking technologies that access novel biology unreachable by standard protein engineering approaches, allowing us to programme how cell therapies function inside patients: to access the tumour, to survive, expand, or functionally persist in the tumour, and to broaden the host immune response in the tumour microenvironment. This Series B financing allows us to accelerate the clinical development of our first two programmes and to expand our innovative pipeline and platform as we aim to change patient outcomes for the better.”
In addition, Outpace announced that Jake Simson, PhD, Partner at RA Capital Management, has been appointed to the company’s Board of Directors. “Existing cell therapies have fallen short in treating solid tumours, offering limited and transient responses,” said Simson. “We are proud to support Outpace’s revolutionary approach to cell therapy, leveraging their unique AI-driven protein design capabilities to solve the multiple obstacles preventing durable responses with unmatched speed and success rates. The Outpace team is distinguished by their exceptional mechanism-driven science and commitment to deliver profound shifts in treatment outcomes for patients with solid tumours.”
About Outpace Bio
Outpace Bio is using unrivalled AI-powered protein design to deliver on the promise of cell therapy for solid tumours by programming cells for improved function inside the patient. The company designs proteins that solve the key barriers to efficacy: poor access to the tumour, weak survival, rapid inactivation, antigen escape, and high required doses that drive toxicity. Outpace creates modular, plug-and-play technology assets and combines them to produce cell therapies with unprecedented efficacy, advancing an internal pipeline of engineered T cell therapies for the treatment of solid tumours.
