Alentis Therapeutics closes $105 million Series C funding to advance transformational medicines for Claudin-1

April 13, 2023

Proceeds will fund:

• Clinical programs ALE.F02 and ALE.C04 – two first-in-class anti-Claudin-1 (CLDN1) antibodies for organ fibrosis and CLDN1 positive tumors
• The platform to engineer CLDN1 antibody drug conjugates (ADC) and bispecific antibodies

Basel, Switzerland – 13 April 2023, Alentis Therapeutics (“Alentis”), the Claudin-1 (CLDN1) company, is a clinical-stage biotech company developing breakthrough treatments for organ fibrosis and CLDN1 positive tumors. Today, Alentis announced $105 million in Series C financing. The funding round was led by Jeito Capital together with Novo Holdings A/S and RA Capital Management with participation from existing investors including BB Pureos Bioventures, Bpifrance through its InnoBio 2 fund and Schroders Capital.

The financing will support Phase II and Phase I programs of Alentis’ lead investigational products ALE.F02 and ALE.C04 respectively as well as the CLDN1 platform development.

We are absolutely delighted with this support from our investors. There are huge unmet needs in organ fibrosis and cancer, and this funding enables us to continue with the important work we’re doing in the CLDN1 space and generate clinical data from both our programs. We can now aggressively develop CLDN1 biology in oncology and continue with the recruitment of our organ fibrosis trials while advancing our ADC and bi-specific antibodies.

Dr. Roberto Iacone, CEO at Alentis Therapeutics

We are totally convinced about the CLDN1 biology potential in multiple areas of fibrosis and oncology. Alentis has made significant progress in identifying target populations while developing programs and advancing the platform. We are committed to continuing our partnership with Alentis as they are the leading player in the CLDN1 space and are well positioned to generate meaningful clinical data within the next 1218 months.

Rafaèle Tordjman, Founder and CEO of Jeito Capital

Novo Holdings Senior Partner, Naveed Siddiqi, will join the Alentis Therapeutics’ Board of Directors.  

The Venture Investments team of Novo Holdings has an extensive track record of backing high-quality biotechs across Europe and the US developing novel treatments for unmet medical needs,” said Naveed Siddiqi. “Alentis has pioneered a world-leading position in the Claudin-1 space and is led by highly capable drug developers. We were encouraged by exciting emerging preclinical data in oncology and the potential of Claudin-1 targeted therapeutics to treat a wide range of cancers where Claudin-1 is highly expressed. We are looking forward to supporting Alentis as it further advances its pipeline in the clinic with the proceeds of this round.

Naveed Siddiqi, Senior Partner at Novo Holdings

Since its $67 million Series B funding in June 2021, Alentis has made major strides: ALE.F02 MAD study completion is imminent; it has clearly defined the CLDN1+ cancer patient population, including T-cell excluded cancers to develop ALE.C04 in oncology; set-up the platform to engineer CLDN1 antibody drug conjugates and bispecific antibodies that the Series C will help to further develop; and is expanding its team of top talent.

About Alentis Therapeutics
Alentis Therapeutics, the CLDN1 company, is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that focuses on developing breakthrough treatments for CLDN1+ tumors and organ fibrosis.  Alentis is pioneering a novel approach to modify and reverse the course of disease progression targeting CLDN1, a previously unexploited target that plays a key role in the pathology of tumors with immune evasive properties and fibrotic disease across multiple organs.

Alentis is the only company developing potential treatments for solid cancers and fibrosis targeting CLDN1.  The company was founded in 2019 based on ground-breaking research in the laboratory of Prof. Thomas Baumert MD at the University of Strasbourg and the French National Institute of Health (Inserm). Alentis is headquartered in Basel’s pharma-biotech hub in Switzerland with an R&D subsidiary in Strasbourg, France and clinical operations in the US. Visit https://alentis.ch

For more information please contact
Alentis Therapeutics                    O public relations GmbH
Nathalie Graf-Tschupp                 O’Patrick Wilson
info@alentis.ch                           o@os-pr.com
Tel: +41 (0) 78 888 4332

About Jeito Capital
Jeito Capital is a global leading Private Equity company with a patient benefit driven approach that finances and accelerates the development and growth of ground-breaking medical innovation. Jeito empowers and supports managers through its expert, integrated, multi-talented team and through the investment of significant capital to ensure the growth of companies, building market leaders in their respective therapeutic areas with accelerated patients’ access globally, especially in Europe and the United States. Jeito Capital has €534 million under management and a rapidly growing portfolio of investments. Jeito Capital is based in Paris with a presence in Europe and the United States.

About Novo Holdings
Novo Holdings is a holding and investment company that is responsible for managing the assets and wealth of the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The purpose of Novo Holdings is to improve people’s health and the sustainability of society and the planet by generating attractive long-term returns on the assets of the Novo Nordisk Foundation.  Wholly owned by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Novo Holdings is the controlling shareholder of Novo Nordisk and Novozymes (the Novo Group companies) and manages an investment portfolio with a long-term return perspective. The investment portfolio comprises two teams including Life Science Investments and Capital Investments. The Life Science Investments team invests in companies at all stages of development and includes Seed Investments, Venture Investments, Growth Investments and Principal Investments. The Capital Investments team manages a broad portfolio of equities, bonds, real estate and infrastructure assets, as well as private equity investments. Novo Holdings operates out of offices in Copenhagen, London, Boston, San Francisco, Singapore and Shanghai. As of year-end 2021, Novo Holdings had total assets of USD 106 billion.

About RA Capital Management
RA Capital is a multi-stage investment manager dedicated to evidence-based investing in public and private healthcare and life science companies that are developing medicines, medical devices and diagnostics.  The flexibility of its strategy allows RA capital to provide seed funding to startups and to lead private IPO, and follow-on financings for its portfolio companies, enabling management teams to drive value creation from inception through commercialization.  At RA Capital’s core is its TechAtlas research division, a scientifically trained team that maps out competitive landscapes to put data into context, identify breakthroughs, and originate conviction in new ideas.  TechAtlas provides market intelligence, technical diligence, and other resources to both our internal investment team and our portfolio companies.

About Pureos Bioventures
Pureos Bioventures invests exclusively in private innovative drug development companies, with a special emphasis on the next generation of biological drugs and drug formats. The fund’s portfolio companies are built on scientific excellence to develop therapies across a broad indication spectrum including oncology, immunology, ophthalmology, rare diseases, and neuroscience. Pureos has built a team with in-depth investment, operating and clinical expertise, that strives to impact patients’ lives by advancing innovative treatments for devastating diseases.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds  
The seed investor High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) finances tech start-ups with growth potential and has supported 700 start-ups since 2005. With the launch of its fourth fund, HTGF now has about 1.4 billion euros under management. Its team of experienced investment managers and start-up experts support young companies with expertise, entrepreneurial spirit and passion. HTGF’s focus is on high-tech start-ups in the fields of digital tech, industrial tech, life sciences, chemistry and related business areas. To date, external investors have injected more than 4.5 billion euros of capital into the HTGF portfolio via more than 2,000 follow-on financing rounds. In addition, HTGF has already successfully sold shares in more than 160 companies. 

Fund investors in this public-private partnership include the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, KfW Capital and 45 companies from a wide range of industries. 

Media contact 
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH 
Stefanie Grüter, Partner Communications & Relations  
T.: +49 228 – 82300 – 188 
s.grueter@htgf.de