Syncona puts $30m into $80m funding round at Autolus
Healthcare company Syncona announced on Tuesday that its portfolio company Autolus has completed a $80m Series C funding round.
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The FTSE 250 firm described Autolus as a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialisation of next-generation engineered CAR-T cell therapies for the treatment of cancer.
Syncona was the single largest investor in the $80m investment round, contributing $29.2m (£21.7m).
It also acquired additional shares worth £6.5m from an existing shareholder.
As part of the round, $25m was raised from leading new global institutional investors Cormorant Asset Management, Nextech Invest and others, Syncona said.
The funding round resulted in a write-up of Syncona’s investment in Autolus to £88.6m - a £19.2m - or 2.9p per share - uplift to Syncona’s proforma valuation of £41.2m, including a further £5m outstanding contribution from the Series B.
Following the transaction, Syncona’s ownership of Autolus increased by 1.5% to 38.4% on a fully-diluted basis
“Autolus is at the forefront of a revolution in cancer treatment that aims to improve the survival of patients,” said Martin Murphy, Syncona’s chief executive officer of life sciences and founding board member at Autolus.
“Since Syncona founded the business three years ago it has made excellent progress, and the quality of the institutional investors attracted in this funding round are testament to the strength of the business.
“We look forward to continuing to support Autolus as it executes its plan to deliver transformational treatments to patients.”
Autolus was founded by Syncona in 2014 based on programmes and technologies from the laboratory of Dr Martin Pule, a clinical haematologist in the field of engineered T-cell therapies.
The business had since grown to around 100 employees led by what Syncona called a “highly experienced” management team at its headquarters in West London.
“Autolus is focused on developing differentiated CAR-T treatments with curative potential,” said Autolus chief executive officer and chairman Christian Itin.
“This successful investment round will enable us to evaluate our clinical programs in blood cancers with the goal to establish clinical proof of concept and get our first programs for the treatment of solid tumors to clinical stage using our advanced cell programming technology.
“Autolus has an experienced and commercially driven management team, with strong investor support, and we are all driven to bring this new class of promising therapies to cancer patients.”