Biotherapeutics startup Hummingbird raises US$19m in Series B funding

SINGAPORE-BASED Hummingbird Bioscience has raised US$19 million in a Series B round co-led by Mirae Asset Venture Investment and GNTech Venture Capital, the startup announced in a press release on Thursday.

Existing investors Heritas Capital and SEEDS Capital, the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore, also joined the funding round. New investors in the round include Delian Capital, Mirae Asset Capital, DAValue-GiltEdge, HB Investment, Wooshin Venture Investment and Kiwoom Investment-Shinhan Capital.

The fresh funding will support Hummingbird's discovery of new disease targets, expanding its pipeline antibody therapeutics, as well as its co-discovery projects under a collaboration agreement signed with Amgen in September.

Hummingbird has developed a novel antibody discovery platform that it says is able to accurately identify previously difficult-to-hit targets for cancer treatment. This enables the startup to engineer antibodies that can precisely hit these targets. 

Founded in 2014, Hummingbird had previously secured over US$60 million in funding through financing activities and strategic partnerships. The startup currently has two assets that are expected to enter first-in-human clinical trials, following regulatory submissions in the second half of 2020.

Dr Piers Ingram, chief executive and co-founder of Hummingbird, highlighted the support of strategic investors as "a strong endorsement of our translational science and transformative vision for the future of drug development".

"We will continue to execute on rapidly building our pipeline of potential medicines across different disease modalities to help treat and inspire hope for people living with cancer and other conditions," he said. 

Jae Joon Kim, managing director at Mirae Asset Venture Investment, said: "We are optimistic about the company's potential to create breakthrough therapies that impact the lives of patients living with serious illnesses. We are delighted to work with Hummingbird Bioscience's proven management team and investor syndicates."