A veteran team of Connecticut drug developers has raised $93 million for their startup, Rallybio, which is working to acquire and develop a portfolio of pharmaceutical technologies to treat severe and rare disorders.
Rallybio, co-founded by three executives who previously worked together at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, disclosed in a U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission filing on Monday that it had raised $93.2 million in equity and options towards a total target of $130 million.
Two dozen investors have participated in the Series B round so far, though Rallybio is not yet disclosing their identities, nor other details about the funding. The company plans to issue more information once the full series is raised, co-founder Jeffrey Fryer said Tuesday morning.
Rallybio has now raised more than $120 million in just two years since it was first formed. It announced a $37 million Series A round in April 2018, with investors including Connecticut Innovations (CI), 5am Ventures, Canaan Partners and New Leaf Venture Partners.
CI, the state’s quasi-public venture capital arm, declined Tuesday to detail its involvement in the Series B round. However, a CI committee in January approved up to $2 million in financing for Rallybio, minutes show.
Rallybio has not announced any of its drug targets to date, but Fryer said Tuesday that the company has “a number of active programs.”
Fryer was previously Alexion’s chief tax officer. He co-founded Rallybio with Martin Mackay, Alexion’s former executive vice president and global head of research, and Dr. Stephen Uden, its former head of research.
The company now has 14 employees, double its count in Oct. 2018. About a dozen of them are Alexion alums.
Rallybio had been headquartered at UConn’s Technology Incubation Program (TIP) facility in Farmington, but began moving its team and headquarters functions to larger accomodations in New Haven last October.
The company now has 3,155 square feet of office space at 234 Church St., known as the Gold Building, but continues to lease space at TIP, Fryer said.
TIP Director Paul S. Parker on Tuesday said Rallybio is one of the most successful fundraisers in TIP’s history.
He noted that Woburn, Mass.-based small molecule drug developer Frequency Therapeutics, which maintains its TIP space, raised more than $230 million last year through an initial public offering, licensing deals and other fundraising.
