Heartflow Inc. is feeling the love of investors again as it closed a $215 series F financing round led by Bain Capital Life Sciences. The round marks a return to the equity markets after several years away; the company closed its series E in 2017 and a $65 million venture round in 2019. In early 2022, Heartflow scrapped its plans to go public through a special purchase acquisition company (SPAC) merger with Longview Acquisition, citing what both companies called “current unfavorable market conditions.” Longview had offered $690 million in July 2021, in a deal that implied an enterprise value of $2.4 billion at the time.
While the larger market has slowed, venture capital (VC) financing continues with two new funds, one from 35-year-old Canaan Partners and one from newbie Cure Ventures. The 13th fund from Canaan contains $850 million in new capital, including an oversubscribed $650 million fund intended for seed and series A funding. Cure Ventures launched its inaugural fund with $350 million in capital commitments.
Mercy Bioanalytics Inc. stepped into the increasingly competitive early cancer detection field with a $41 million series A financing round to support its Halo liquid biopsy platform. Novalis Lifesciences led the oversubscribed round with participation from Sozo Ventures, Hatteras Venture Partners, Iselect Fund, American Cancer Society BrightEdge and Broadway Angels, an all-women venture capital group. Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings, Bruker Corp. and existing investors also contributed to the round.
Adcendo ApS has added a further €31 million (US$33.6 million) to its series A round, providing the means to take its lead antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) through to clinical proof of concept in the treatment of sarcoma.