Nearly 60% of venture capital financing rounds in the first half (H1) of 2026 were over $100 million, with the volume of those deals topping $7.5 billion, up 23% from the year-ago semester and just slightly below H1 2024, which saw a total of $7.84 billion in large financings.

Aptevo Therapeutics Inc. has been awarded a $1.5 million research grant from the Andy Hill Cancer Research Endowment (CARE) Fund to support IND-enabling work for APVO-451, Aptevo’s trispecific antibody-like immunotherapy candidate for solid tumors.

Telum Therapeutics SL has completed an €18 million (US$24 million) series A financing to advance its lead program targeting hospital-acquired bacterial pneumonia and ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia caused by the multidrug-resistant gram-negative pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii.

Alebund Pharmaceuticals (Jiangsu) Ltd. was the third Chinese biotech company to debut in Hong Kong this month, with June IPO proceeds from Alebund, Longbio Pharma Co. Ltd. and Shaanxi Micot Pharmaceutical Technology Co. Ltd. totaling about HK$4.7 billion (US$600 million).

The oversubscribed $330 million series B round secured by Ollin Biosciences Inc. marks more than another large venture round in ophthalmology. It also highlights an emerging biotech financing model in which Chinese pharma companies discover and clinically validate promising drugs before handing global development to well-capitalized U.S. startups backed by blue-chip venture investors.

Smartbax GmbH has announced the successful second closing of its pre-series A financing round for a total of €6.3 million (US$7.2 million) as it advances development of next-generation antibiotics against multidrug-resistant bacteria.