Triumvira Immunologics Secures $55 Million in Venture Financing Round

Triumvira Immunologics is a clinical-stage immunotherapy company with the vision of developing novel T-cell therapies that are safer and more effective than current cell therapy cancer treatments.

FREMONT, CA: Triumvira Immunologics an Austin, Texas-based biopharmaceutical company developing a novel platform for engineering T-cells to attack cancers, raised $55 million in Series A financing round.

The round was co-led by Leaps by Bayer, the impact investment unit of Bayer AG, and Northpond Ventures. Additional investors include Oceanpine Capital and Viva Biotech Holdings, and existing investors include Bloom Burton & Co. and the Centre for Commercialization of Cancer Immunotherapy (C3i).

Triumvira is committed to developing novel T-cell therapies as cell therapy cancer treatments, including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and engineered T-cell receptor (TCR) therapies. The latest capital will allow the company to advance multiple autologous and allogeneic programs into the clinic for solid tumors and hematologic malignancies.

The company’s foundational technology is the T-cell Antigen Coupler (TAC). TAC is a hybrid molecule comprising multiple protein domains to combine tumor-targeting abilities with the T-cell’s activation machinery, leveraging the potential for the development of superior therapies for a broad range of patients with solid or liquid malignancies.

Its preclinical data with autologous and allogeneic programs demonstrate unique biological differences between TAC-engineered T-cells and second-generation CAR-T cells, with TAC-T cells showing the absence of tonic signaling, strong tumor penetration, and long-term persistence. These functional properties help TAC T-cells produce strong anti-tumor activity and no toxicity evidence, particularly in models of solid tumors.

“With so many engineered T-cell therapy companies developing new T-cell technologies, it is all about differentiation,” said Dr. Paul Lammers, president, and CEO of Triumvira. “We are excited to have a strong group of investors join our Series A syndicate, who believe in the promise of our proprietary TAC technology, which incorporates an innovative, well-differentiated, and patented design. As we develop our technology that has the potential to be used in treating both hematological and solid tumors, we hope to show that differentiation in clinical trials soon and provide a significant benefit to cancer patients.”

Dr.Juergen Eckhardt and Dr.Jak Knowles will represent Leaps by Bayer by actively participating on Triumvira’s board of directors together with Dr.Shaan Gandhi, Principal at Northpond Ventures. Additionally, Scott Smith, current President at BioAtla and former President and Chief Operating Officer at Celgene, has been named Chairman of the Board. Brian Bloom, Dr. Paul Lammers, Dr. John Holyoake, and independent Director Cynthia Collins, President and CEO at Editas Medicine, will remain on the Triumvira board.