Congruence Therapeutics Announces Close of Series A Extension, Bringing Total Round to Over US$65 Million
Strengthens investor syndicate with participation from new investor BDC Capital's new Thrive Venture Fund
MONTREAL and RALEIGH, N.C., March 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Congruence Therapeutics, a biotechnology company working at the interface of computational and experimental drug discovery to design novel small molecules for diseases of protein misfolding, announced today the close of an extension to its Series A financing, bringing the total amount raised to over US$65 million. This extension was led by new investor BDC Capital's Thrive Venture Fund, with participation from current investors Amplitude Ventures, Fonds de solidarité FTQ, OrbiMed, Investissement Quebec (IQ), SilverArc, and others.
"This financing provides further evidence of the emerging role that technology must play to drive innovation in biotechnology. We are proud to be pioneers in tech-enabled drug discovery with the support of high-quality investors who share our commitment to developing computational tools that will re-invent the way that drugs are discovered," said Dr. Clarissa Desjardins, CEO of Congruence. "These additional proceeds will allow us to accelerate our pace, advancing our Revenir™ platform and our pipeline of first-in-class and best-in-class programs for devastating genetic, rare and neurological diseases toward the clinic."
Michelle Scarborough, Managing Partner, Thrive Venture Fund at BDC Capital added, "With an incredible team led by Clarissa and a first-of-its-kind discovery platform, Congruence will quickly emerge as a leading biotechnology company who is well-positioned to disrupt traditional drug discovery and deliver real benefits to patients. We are proud to lead this investment round and look forward to supporting Congruence through its next phase of growth."
In February 2022, Congruence announced the close of its Series A financing of US$50 million, led by Amplitude Ventures and Fonds de solidarité FTQ, with participation from Lumira Ventures, Investissement Quebec, OrbiMed Advisors, Driehaus Capital Management, and others. Congruence Therapeutics was founded in 2021 by Clarissa Desjardins, Ph.D., previously the founder and chief executive officer of Clementia Pharmaceuticals, a company developing therapies for rare pediatric bone diseases and sold to Ipsen in early 2019 for US$1.3 billion. Clementia's lead product, Sohonos™ (palovarotene), was recently approved in Canada and is under review at the FDA as the first treatment for Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva, a debilitating and progressive rare bone disorder. At Congruence, Dr. Desjardins has put into place a team of 'drug hunters' with experience in rare disease strategy and clinical development, computational chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and business development.
About Congruence Therapeutics
Congruence Therapeutics is a drug discovery company that is uniquely harnessing the power of innovative fields such as protein dynamics, biophysics, machine learning, AI, and computational chemistry to advance drug discovery. Our ground-breaking discovery engine, RevenirTM, captures the biophysical features of functional proteins and their pathogenic counterparts in order to discover functional allosteric and cryptic pockets which can lead to small molecule hits at unprecedented speed.