Alentis secures USD 105 million to boost development of its cancer-treatment platform

The biotech startup Alentis Therapeutics announced today that it closed a Series C funding round. The startup is a TOP 100 Swiss Startup as well as a Venture Leader alum.

Alentis Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotech focusing on Claudin-1 (CLDN1) in the development of breakthrough treatments for organ fibrosis and CLDN1-positive tumors.

Today, Alentis announced that it secured USD 105 million in a Series C funding round led by Jeito Capital, 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," said Dr. Roberto Iacone, CEO at Alentis Therapeutics. "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."

Alentis secured USD 67 million in its Series B funding round in June 2021 and has made significant progress since then: 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.

Novo Holdings' Senior Partner, Naveed Siddiqi will join Alentis' 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."

Alentis was voted a TOP 100 Swiss Startup in 2021 and 2022. The startup was also chosen to participate in the Venture Leaders Biotech program last year, which took ten biotech innovators on an investor and business development roadshow in Boston.


Alentis CEO Dr. Robert Iacone