Ray Therapeutics, a San Francisco, CA-based optogenetics company, raised $100M in Series A funding.
The round was led by Novo Holdings A/S, and joined by Deerfield Management, Norwest Venture Partners, Platanus, MRL Ventures Fund, and existing investor 4BIO Capital. In connection with the financing, Ray Camahort, Ph.D., Partner in the Venture Investments group at Novo Holdings, Tiba Aynechi, Ph.D. General Partner, Norwest Venture Partners and Hannah Chang, M.D., Ph.D., Managing Director, Platanus, will join Sean Ainsworth, Dima Kuzmin, Ph.D., and Paul Bresge on the Board of Directors at Ray Therapeutics. Brian Chow Ph.D., Principal at Deerfield and Jason Ruth Ph.D., Partner, MRL Ventures Fund, will join as Board Observers.
The company intends to use the funds to advance multiple programs targeting blinding diseases of the eye through clinical development.
Led by CEO Paul Bresge, Ray Therapeutics is developing novel optogenetics gene therapies for patients with blinding diseases. The company has developed an optogenetic platform to bioengineer a next generation pipeline of genotype independent therapeutics for vision restoration in multiple retinal diseases where the normal light sensing cells (photoreceptors) are lost, for example retinitis pigmentosa, other inherited retinal dystrophies and macular degeneration. The company’s lead candidate, RTx-015 for treating retinitis pigmentosa, is expected to begin first-in-human clinical trials shortly.
FinSMEs
16/05/2023