CAMBRIDGE, Mass.– Seismic Therapeutic, Inc., the machine learning immunology company, today announced that it has closed a $121 million Series B financing. The Series B was led by new investor Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from other new investors, Amgen Ventures, Codon Capital, Alexandria Venture Investments, Gaingels and GC&H, as well as existing investors, Timothy A. Springer, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Polaris Partners, Boxer Capital, GV, Samsara BioCapital, and management and founders.
Proceeds from the Series B financing will be used to advance through Phase 1 proof-of-mechanism trials with Seismic’s two lead programs: a pan‑immunoglobulin (Ig) G protease sculpting (Sc) enzyme candidate (S-1117) and a PD-1 agonist:Fc gamma receptor IIb selective Dual-cell Bidirectional (DcB) antibody candidate (S-4321). In addition, the Series B will enable the continued growth of the company’s pipeline in both the IgSc and DcB product areas, beyond the lead programs. The funding will also enable the company to further expand its proprietary machine learning-enabled IMPACT platform with the development and implementation of additional cutting-edge methods to enhance biologics drug discovery in immunology. Concurrent with the financing, Andrew Hedin, MBA, biotech and healthcare partner of Bessemer Venture Partners, will join Seismic’s board of directors.
“Seismic has made impressive achievements in a short time integrating the power of machine learning with its deep drug development expertise to create two differentiated lead programs, each offering a compelling opportunity to address unmet medical needs in autoimmune diseases in a new way,” said Mr. Hedin. “We look forward to collaborating with the Seismic team to realize the full potential of its unique approach to immunology drug development, enabled by machine learning.”
Since the company’s launch and announcement of its Series A round, Seismic has advanced two programs into IND-enabling studies. This progress resulted from Seismic’s integration of leading-edge machine learning into drug development in a specific area – biologics for immunology – powered by a diverse team of drug developers and machine learning innovators. With this approach and its IMPACT platform, Seismic has rapidly engineered novel biologics with drug-like properties using multi-parameter optimization. For its lead IgSc enzyme program, Seismic engineered novel pan-IgG proteases with reduced B cell and T cell immunogenicity and chemical liabilities while maintaining enzyme activity and stability, creating a protease therapeutic to address multiple pathogenic mechanisms in a single drug for the treatment of acute and chronic autoantibody mediated diseases. Seismic designed its lead DcB antibody program to optimize the targeting of multiple cell types that drive pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases, specifically engaging T cells via PD-1 agonism and antigen presenting cells via the inhibitory Fc gamma receptor.
“We are delighted to secure the support of such a strong syndicate of investors who believe in Seismic’s ability to pioneer a new era of immunology drug development integrating machine learning,” said Jo Viney, PhD, Founder, President and CEO of Seismic Therapeutic. “This financing enables us to continue our momentum and advance both of our exciting lead programs into the clinic. We believe the time is right to harness advances in machine learning to discover the next generation of biologics drugs to improve the lives of patients with autoimmune diseases.”
