Arrakis Therapeutics Inc.’s CEO, Michael Gilman, knew his 3-year-old company had a partnering tiger by the tail just by the amount of interest from companies who wanted to partner. He sat back and waited until the right offer came along and went with Roche Holding AG. The result is a massive collaboration and license agreement that could stretch into the billions of dollars. “We very deliberately stayed out of partnering discussions for the first couple years,” Gilman told BioWorld. “It took a while to figure out how to do this. We wanted to understand what we had before selling off parts of it.”

Boulder, Colo.-based startup Arpeggio Biosciences Inc. scooped up $3.2 million in seed funding in a round led by Khosla Ventures, with participation by Fundersclub, Fifty Years, TechU and Y Combinator.