The Daily Startup: Allergen Research Raises $80M to Fight Peanut Allergies
Art by Mike Lucas
Allergen Research has raised $80 million to help tackle the problem of peanut allergies, Brian Gormley reports for Dow Jones VentureWire. The company is developing a product that desensitizes patients so that accidental exposure to peanuts doesn’t cause a severe allergic response. Peanut allergy is one of the most common of food allergies, which affect 5% of children and 4% of adults in the U.S., according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. New investor Foresite Capital led this Series B round, which also included new investors Adage Capital, Aisling Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Co., Palo Alto Investors and RA Capital Management. Return backer Longitude Capital also participated.
ALSO IN TODAY’S VENTUREWIRE (subscription required):
Bugcrowd raised $6 million for software that helps companies run their own software-bug bounty programs by using the power of a crowd to track the bugs down. The Series A round was led by Costanoa Venture Capital and includes Rally Ventures, Paladin Capital Group and Blackbird Ventures, taking total funding to $9 million.
EVEN Financial, a startup that is providing a service to the growing group of online lenders, has raised a $2.8 million seed round. Leading the round was Canaan Partners, an early investor in Lending Club, an online lending platform that recently held a successful initial public offering.
Liaison Technologies, which makes cloud-enabled data-integration and data-management products, said that undisclosed investments from Merck Global Health Innovation Fund have brought the company’s total backing to $90 million.
Aduro Biotech, a company developing drugs that aim to teach the body’s immune system to fight cancer the way it fights other maladies, has publicly filed for its initial public offering. The company is developing drugs in the immunotherapy field. Companies in this sector have seen strong backing on the public markets in recent months, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Highfive Technologies said it raised $32 million in Series B financing for its videoconferencing device and service.
New investor Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round. The firm was joined by prior backers Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst Partners, Google Ventures, SV Angel and individuals.
(VentureWire is a daily newsletter with comprehensive analysis of all the investments, deals and personnel moves involving startups and their venture backers. For a two-week trial, visit http://on.wsj.com/DJPEVCNews, scroll to the bottom and click “try for free.”)
ELSEWHERE AROUND THE WEB:
Why Asia’s Tech Giants Are Investing in U.S. Startups. Internet giants in Asia including Alibaba Group Holding and Rakuten are showing an interest in investing large amounts in U.S. startups to help them get a toehold in Silicon Valley as well as to bring some of the technology started in the U.S. back to Asia, The Wall Street Journal’s Douglas MacMillan and Rolfe Winkler report. SoftBank, Alibaba and China’s Tencent Holdings have all set up U.S. investment offices and hired stateside investors.
23andMe to Mine Genetic Database for Drug Discovery. The personal genetics company 23andMe plans to mine the database of information collected from its 850,000 customers for drug targets, the WSJ’s Ron Winslow reports. Richard Scheller will join the company next month as chief science officer and lead a new therapeutics group to discover new drugs. Mr. Scheller previously worked as the head of research and early development at Roche Holding.
‘Digital Cobbler’ Feetz Walks Off With $1.3 Million for 3-D Printed Shoes. A startup that calls itself a “digital cobbler” has raised $1.3 million in seed funding for custom 3-D printed shoes, the WSJ’s Timothy Hay reports. The company, Feetz, is launching an app that will allow users to take pictures of their feet and send the images to the company, which will then 3-D print shoes using an antimicrobial material that is similar to Crocs.
Chinese Tech Stocks Overvalued? Tech startups in China are raising capital at a record pace, which, like in the U.S., is prompting concerns about potentially overvaluing companies, the WSJ’s Rick Carew and Juro Osawa report.
What’s at Stake If Uber and Lyft’s Labor Models Go to Trial. Two judges in San Francisco ruled this week that lawsuits by drivers of the ride-hailing services Uber Technologies and Lyft should go before juries, the WSJ’s Rachel Emma Silverman reports. At issue is whether the drivers, who are employed as full-time contractors, should be considered employees. The rulings could set a legal precedent about how some of the workers in the so-called on-demand economy are classified, which could extend beyond the two companies involved in the suits.
Write to Mike Billings at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @mbillings
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The Daily Startup: Allergen Research Raises $80M to Fight Peanut Allergies
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