After a rocky two years, money has started flowing back to biotech, with the return of the megaround exemplified in the $1 billion fundraise of 2024’s top moneymaker, Xaira Therapeutics.
Few biotechs can expect to collect $1 billion in financing in one fell swoop, but the artificial-intelligence-focused company did just that. It reeled in the eye-popping sum in April, and no other biotech managed to come close to Xaira’s massive haul last year.
The second-largest private placement was secured by the uber-secretive Treeline Biosciences, which raised $421.8 million toward the end of last summer. Hot on the cancer-focused company’s tail, Kailera Therapeutics and Mirador Therapeutics tied for third place with $400 million each.
The massive fundraises underscore an ongoing pattern in industry funding: Higher overall figures are driven in part by megarounds in AI and obesity, where big VCs keep scoring but smaller firms are less successful.
Meanwhile, challenges in obtaining follow-on funding—specifically series B financings—discouraged early-stage activity, such as series A rounds and seed raises, according to HSBC’s 2024 Annual Venture Healthcare Report. Instead, investors favored large syndicates, particularly for companies incubated by VCs, or later-stage, derisked opportunities, per HSBC.
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While the future remains unclear for smaller fundraising efforts, one thing is certain: The megaround is back for biotech. The 10th-biggest round of the year still totaled out to a hefty $259 million, and, what’s more, 2024’s list even includes two large funding rounds for a single company in the trendy obesity space.
Read on for the entire list of the largest biotech funding rounds of 2024.
1
Xaira Therapeutics
Amount: $1 billion
Series: Unknown
Month: April
Investors: Arch Venture Partners, Foresite Labs, F-Prime, NEA, Sequoia Capital, Lux Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Byers Capital, Rsquared and SV Angel, among others
Incubated by Arch Venture Partners and Foresite Labs, Xaira Therapeutics emerged last spring with a whopping $1 billion in hand and with Marc Tessier-Lavigne, Ph.D., former chief scientific officer at Genentech, leading the way.
Headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, Xaira is combining machine learning, data generation and therapeutic product development to build a new kind of drug discovery platform. Part of the new company includes technologies and personnel spun out from Illumina’s functional genomics R&D effort, plus a proteomics group from Interline Therapeutics.
The company was co-founded by David Baker, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry and director of the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
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Before Xaira, the company’s CEO and co-founder Tessier-Lavigne served as president of Stanford University. He resigned in 2023 after allegations of research manipulation were confirmed by a panel review, though the review found no evidence that Tessier-Lavigne was aware of the misconduct that had occurred in his lab.
Earlier in his career, from 2003 to 2011, he worked at Genentech, where he served first as senior vice president of research drug discovery and, ultimately, as executive VP of research and chief scientific officer.
“In my previous roles, I witnessed an earlier generation of technologies fundamentally change drug discovery, delivering new medicines that alleviate the burden of disease for many patients,” Tessier-Lavigne said in a statement about Xaira’s launch. “Now, witnessing how AI is impacting other industries and the considerable progress in applications of AI in biology, I believe we are poised for a revolution.”
The billion-dollar startup has gone on to build out its team, with Roche vet Paulo Fontoura, M.D., Ph.D., joining as chief medical officer in early 2025. Fontoura had previously served for 16 years at Roche, most recently holding the role of global head and senior vice president for neuroscience, immunology, ophthalmology and more.
2
Treeline Biosciences
Amount: $421.8 million
Series: Unknown
Month: August
Investors: 43 unnamed investors
Tight-lipped Treeline Biosciences brought in the second largest fundraise in 2024, tapping 43 unnamed investors for a nearly $422 million financing round, according to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings.
Little is known about how the funds will be used.
The biotech, which emerged in 2021, is helmed by Joshua Bilenker, M.D., who had formerly served as Eli Lilly’s former cancer R&D head after the pharma’s $8 billion acquisition of Bilenker’s startup Loxo Oncology. Bilenker, alongside Jeff Engelman M.D., Ph.D., who at the time had worked at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, cofounded Treeline, with Engelman now serving as chief scientific officer.
At the time, the pair said the biotech would “prioritize molecular targets in oncology that are validated but difficult to drug.”
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In an October 2022 post—one of two updates shared on the company’s website to date—the cofounders said they had a team of 130-plus people across three sites.
Previous SEC filings indicate that the biotech may have raised almost $900 million since launching.
3
Kailera Therapeutics
Amount: $400 million
Series: A
Month: October
Investors: Atlas Venture, Bain Capital Life Sciences, RTW Investments and Lyra Capital
Tied for third with Mirador on this list, Kailera Therapeutics entered the ever-expanding obesity landscape with $400 million and a portfolio of assets acquired from Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals.
The Massachusetts- and California-based biotech secured the ex-China rights to four GLP-1 drugs—including an injectable GLP-1/GIP receptor dual agonist and an oral small-molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist, both clinical-stage candidates—from the China-based pharma back in May.
Recently, Kailera shared phase 2 obesity data linking its injectable GLP-1/GIP to a 22.8% mean weight loss after 36 weeks. The data come from a study Hengrui Pharma is running in China that includes 61 patients who are overweight or with obesity but don’t have Type 2 diabetes. Forty-nine participants received once-weekly injections of the candidate, while the other patients received placebo.
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The data suggest HRS9531 has similar efficacy to Eli Lilly’s approved obesity blockbuster Zepbound. Patients taking the drug, which, like HRS9531, hits GLP-1 and GIP, lost (PDF) 20.9% of their body weight across 36 weeks of treatment.
Not long after reporting the data, Kailera snagged Lilly vet Jamie Coleman to serve as chief commercial officer. Most recently, Coleman had served as Lilly’s vice president of brand marketing for Zepbound.
The biotech is led by CEO Ron Renaud, who oversaw neuroscience biotech Cerevel Therapeutics in the months leading up to its $8.7 billion acquisition by AbbVie and has also served as a senior advisor at Bain Capital. He’s joined by Cerevel alumni in the form of Kailera’s chief operating and chief business officer Paul Burgess, while former Latigo Biotherapeutics CEO Scott Wasserman, M.D., has been named chief medical officer.
4
Mirador Therapeutics
Amount: $400 million
Series: A
Month: March
Investors: Arch Venture Partners, OrbiMed, Fairmount, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Point72, Farallon Capital Management, Boxer Capital, TCGX, Invus, Logos Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, Blue Owl Healthcare Opportunities, Sanofi Ventures, Woodline Partners LP, Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners, RTW Investments and Alexandria Venture Investments
Mirador secured a massive $400 million series A in the first quarter of 2024, an amount that has tied the new biotech with Kailera for third on this list.
The company aims to develop precision medicines for inflammatory and fibrotic diseases, with an initial focus on gastrointestinal tract, lung and skin diseases, CEO Mark McKenna told Fierce Biotech last year. The former Prometheus Biosciences leader, along with a team from Prometheus, have formed a new enterprise around the Mirador360 platform—technology that uses data from millions of patient molecular profiles to find genetic targets for immuno-fibrotic diseases. This also includes a diagnostic component to find the right patients for the right therapy.
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The massive financing will be used to advance multiple internal programs into the clinic, but McKenna said he is also looking for deals that Mirador could “supercharge” with its precision medicine approach.
In November, the biotech joined forces with genetics company 23andMe in a pact aimed at developing new immunology and inflammation therapeutics.
5
Formation Bio
Amount: $372 million
Series: D
Month: June
Investors: a16z, Sanofi, Sequoia, Thrive, Emerson Collective, Lachy Groom, SV Angel Growth and FPV Ventures
Artificial-intelligence-based Formation Bio secured $372 million with the aim of expanding its clinical pipeline.
The company partners with other biotechs to improve their workflow automation, such as generating tailored patient recruitment content for specific cohorts of a clinical trial or quickly producing AI-generated adverse event reports. The company said it plans to deploy the new cash to continue to acquire and in-license clinical-stage assets from its biotech and pharma partners.
“In the long term, the company’s goal is to build and train AI models that can better predict toxicity, tolerability, and one day, efficacy,” Formation said in a June 26 release.
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Formation, formerly known as TrialSpark, currently lists three candidates in its clinical pipeline, including a SYK/JAK inhibitor called gusacitinib in phase 3 development for chronic hand eczema. There’s also a sodium channel blocker called ASN008 in phase 2 trials for notalgia paresthetica and itch associated with atopic dermatitis as well as a midstage FGF18 drug called sprifermin for knee osteoarthritis.
Both gusacitinib and ASN008 were bought from Asana BioSciences, while sprifermin was licensed from Merck KGaA. Both deals occurred in 2022.
6
Candid Therapeutics
Amount: $370 million
Series: A
Month: September
Investors: Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners, Fairmount, TCGX, venBio Partners, Foresite Capital, Third Rock Ventures, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Samsara BioCapital, Qiming Venture Partners USA, OrbiMed, Boxer Capital, Redmile Group, Vida Ventures, Two River, Franklin Templeton, LifeSci Venture Partners, Mirae Asset Capital Life Science, Polaris Innovation Fund, Soleus Capital and others
After overseeing the $4.1 billion sale of radiopharma player RayzeBio to Bristol Myers Squibb, biotech veteran Ken Song, M.D., set up his next big venture: Candid Therapeutics.
The biotech’s president and CEO pulled off an unusual launch that combined fundraising and the acquisition of two biotechs, Vignette Bio and TRC 2004, along with their lead assets.
“It was unconventional to bring together ultimately what was three financings, two licensing transactions and an M&A,” Candid CEO Song told Fierce Biotech. “But it got done.”
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Now, Song’s mission is for Candid to dominate the T-cell engager market.
T-cell engagers are bispecific antibodies that bind to T cells and a molecule on a target cell so the T cells attack the target. The engagers Candid picked up from Vignette and TRC were both developed in China to treat cancer. CND106, from Vignette, targets B-cell maturation antigen, while CND261 from TRC binds to CD20. Both then also bind to CD3 on the surface of T cells.
7
Arsenal Biosciences
Amount: $325 million
Series: C
Month: September
Investors: Arch Venture Partners, Milky Way Investments Group, Regeneron Ventures, NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm), Luma Group, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Rock Springs Capital, the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Bristol Myers Squibb, Westlake Village BioPartners, Kleiner Perkins, Byers Capital and Hitachi Ventures
Arsenal, a cell therapy company, added on $325 million in ammunition to advance its candidates in kidney and prostate cancers.
After pushing aside its former lead asset in ovarian cancer, Arsenal’s new lead program, AB-2100, entered a phase 1/2 trial for clear-cell renal cell carcinoma last spring and nabbed fast-track designation from the FDA.
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“It is an incredible challenge. It was challenging for us too,” ArsenalBio CEO and co-founder Ken Drazan, M.D., told Fierce Biotech about raising money amid the rocky investor environment. “No one in this day and age would be arrogant to say that it was easy, and you certainly wouldn’t hear that from me ever.”
Arsenal employs a team of 265 people and is growing, Drazan said back in September, noting that the company’s diverse team plays an important role in developing products in today’s market.
8
Metsera
Amount: $290 million
Series: Seed/A
Month: April
Investors: Arch Venture Partners, F-Prime Capital, GV, Mubadala Capital, Newpath Partners, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and other undisclosed investors
Founded in 2022, Metsera emerged from stealth in April with $290 million and hopes of ushering in the next generation of obesity and metabolic disease treatments.
Six months later, the biotech followed up its initial fundraise with a $215 million series B financing after its GLP-1 receptor agonist MET-097 was linked to a 7.5% reduction in body weight over 36 days in a phase 1 readout.
The biotech said it would use the series B cash to “further accelerate” its portfolio, including by running a 16-week phase 2 study of MET-097. Shortly thereafter, the biotech linked its injectable candidate to weight loss of up to 11.3% after 12 weeks in a phase 2a trial.
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Then, at the end of January, the obesity biotech debuted on the public market, generating gross IPO proceeds of around $275 million. Metsera said it will use the money to run a phase 3 trial of MET-097 through top-line results.
The biotech, which was founded by Population Health Partners and Arch Venture Partners, has several other earlier-stage assets in its pipeline targeting people who are overweight, obesity and related conditions.
9
Cardurion Pharmaceuticals
Amount: $260 million
Series: B
Month: July
Investors: Bain, Ascenta Capital, NEA, GV, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Millennium Management, Farallon Capital Management, Invus, Blue Owl Healthcare Opportunities, Delos Capital and Digitalis Ventures
Cardurion is looking to challenge the statin-dominated cardiovascular status quo, touting plans to use its $260 million financing to support later-stage trials for two lead candidates: a PDE9 inhibitor for heart failure called CRD-750 and a CaMKII inhibitor called CRD-4730 for an abnormal heart rhythm disorder.
The biotech was founded by Michael Mendelsohn, M.D., a physician-scientist and the former global head of cardiovascular research at Merck & Co. After forming a collaboration with Takeda in 2017, the biotech emerged with lab space, development resources and licenses to several Takeda assets.
A few years later, investor Bain Capital channeled $300 million to Cardurion to support the Massachusetts-based biotech’s pipeline.
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Now, the company is running three phase 2 trials for CRD-750, CRD-4730 and another asset dubbed CRD-740. That candidate is a PDE9 inhibitor, like CRD-750, and is being studied in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction.
CEO Peter Lawrence has credited Cardurion’s fundraising success over recent years to a general excitement about cardiovascular diseases and specific enthusiasm for Cardurion’s potentially first-in-class drugs.
10
Alumis
Amount: $259 million
Series: C
Month: March
Investors: Foresite Capital, Samsara BioCapital, venBio Partners, Cormorant Asset Management, SR One, Lilly Asia Ventures, Nextech, Ally Bridge Group, HBM Healthcare Investments, Omega Funds, Piper Heartland Healthcare, Matrix Capital Management’s AyurMaya and an unnamed healthcare-focused fund
Rounding out this year’s list is Alumis, an immune-mediated disease biotech that secured $259 million to support its pipeline of oral therapies and help launch a phase 3 psoriasis trial.
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Less than three months after the series C financing, Alumis revealed plans for a $274 million IPO, downsizing the offer a few days later to $250 million.
The California-based biotech said it would use the series C and IPO cash to launch pivotal trials for ESK-001, an allosteric tyrosine kinase 2 inhibitor, in moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. Indeed, at the end of July, Alumis initiated patient dosing in a pair of phase 3 trials, with top-line data slated for 2026.
