Laronde Raises $440M in Series B Financing

Laronde, a Cambridge, Mass.-based company advancing Endless RNA™ (eRNA) – a novel, engineered form of RNA that can be programmed to express therapeutic proteins inside the body, raised $440M in Series B financing.

The round included the company’s founder, Flagship Pioneering, along with funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Invus, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), Fidelity Management & Research Company, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, and Federated Hermes Kaufmann Funds, among others.

The company intends to use the funds to advance the development of its eRNA platform and a broad pipeline of programs across a number of therapeutic categories.

Founded in 2017 by Flagship Labs, the innovation foundry of Flagship Pioneering, Laronde is advancing Endless RNA™ (eRNA), which, invented at Flagship Labs, is an engineered RNA that can be programmed to express diverse proteins inside the body. It is persistent, non-immunogenic, allows for repeat dosing, and offers flexibility in formulation and delivery. The company is scaling to support the parallel development of multiple programs across many disease areas.

Key people include:

  • Diego Miralles, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Laronde and CEO-Partner at Flagship Pioneering,
  • Avak Kahvejian, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Board Member of Laronde, and General Partner, Flagship Pioneering
  • Noubar Afeyan, Ph.D., Co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Laronde and Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Flagship Pioneering

FinSMEs

30/08/2021