Novartis-backed Poseida is packing in the cash for its next-gen CAR-T work, adding a $110M venture raise on top of its newly-refiled IPO
A week after updating their S-1 in search of at least $115 million on the hot biotech IPO market, Poseida Therapeutics says it’s also raised a fresh venture round — a little more than a year after its last.
The first time around, after Poseida delayed its IPO during a government shutdown, the biotech reported a $150 million C round. This time around, it’s adding $110 million more from Fidelity Management Research Company and others.
There’s no word in the biotech’s statement on Novartis, which bought up half of the equity for the Series C cash with a $75 million investment.
According to the SEC filing, Novartis — which fielded the first, somewhat troubled CAR-T — owns 14.9% of the company, with Malin in for 23.2%, though those numbers may have changed now.
The big beneficiary is CEO Eric Ostertag, who controls 12.6 million shares — 25.4% — through various family trusts.
Poseida’s big idea involves the use of a non-viral DNA tech that they say can be used to gather a bigger concentration of stem cell memory T cells that can avoid the exhaustion that limits the efficacy of the pioneers — a central theme in cell therapy 2.0.
Ostertag picked up his PhD in molecular biology at Penn and went on to a career that included a variety of biotech startups.
