A-Alpha Bio Secures $2.8M Seed Funding to Advance AlphaSeq Gene Engineering Platform

On September 25, 2019, VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) learned from foreign media reports that biotechnology company A-Alpha Bio (A-Alpha) announced the completion of a $2.8 million seed financing round. The round was led by OS Fund, with participation from AME Cloud Ventures, Boom Capital, Madrona Venture Group, Sahsen Venture, and the Washington Research Foundation.

Upon completion of this funding round, A-Alpha will utilize the proceeds to further develop its AlphaSeq gene engineering technology platform.

A-Alpha Bio, founded in 2017 and headquartered in Seattle, USA, is a biotechnology company. The company provides target protein binding and specificity optimization services to pharmaceutical companies. A-Alpha Bio can perform high-precision quantitative measurements of interactions for millions of proteins, helping pharmaceutical companies accelerate drug development.

A-Alpha Bio was founded by biologists from the University of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design (IPD) and Center for Synthetic Biology. The company has developed a genetic engineering technology platform called AlphaSeq. This platform can be used to measure interactions between proteins, helping to research, develop, and optimize life-saving drugs.

Currently, pharmaceutical companies are developing more challenging drugs that often require the combination of multiple proteins. Traditional drug development could only iteratively screen for one target at a time. This approach is inefficient, costly, and has a low success rate. AlphaSeq allows drug developers and researchers to screen thousands of disease targets in a single experiment, significantly accelerating the screening process.

David Baker, a scientific advisor to A-Alpha Bio and researcher at the University of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design, stated, “Although many methods are available for screening biomacromolecules, few approaches enable the screening of thousands of disease targets in a single experiment. A-Alpha Bio provides a method that not only quantitatively measures interactions between biomacromolecules but also assesses the effects of small molecules and other perturbations.”

Jeff Klunzinger, Co-founder and General Manager of A-Alpha Bio, stated, “A-Alpha’s platform provides partners with ready-to-use services, addressing a critical challenge by enabling companies to assess drug potency and efficacy in a shorter timeframe. We believe the A-Alpha team will accelerate the discovery of multi-target protein therapeutics, such as multi-specific antibodies and small-molecule protein-protein interaction modulators.”

“Dr. David Younger, Co-founder and CEO of A-Alpha Bio, stated, ‘We are delighted to have secured support from experts in synthetic biology, seasoned pharmaceutical industry professionals, and investors, all of whom will bring substantial value to A-Alpha Bio.’”

OS Fund, established in 2013 and headquartered in Illinois, USA, is a venture capital firm primarily investing in the biotechnology sector.

AME Cloud Ventures, established in 2012 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, USA, is a venture capital fund. The fund primarily invests in data technology companies focused on infrastructure, applications, mobile devices, and sensors.

Boom Capital, established in 2017 and headquartered in San Francisco, USA, is a venture capital firm that primarily invests in deep-tech enterprises.

Madrona Venture Group, founded in 1995 and headquartered in Seattle, USA, is a venture capital firm. The firm primarily invests in early-stage startups in the information technology sector.

Sahsen Venture, established in 2016, is a privately held investment firm primarily focused on early-stage startups.

Washington Research Foundation, established in 1982 and headquartered in Washington State, USA, is a venture capital firm. The company primarily invests in the fields of information technology and physical sciences.

(Compiled by Hu Yifan)