Serentis raises £10M in financing round

Investment round completed

Serentis Ltd has closed a £10 million round, expanding the total of its first round funding to £15.3 million, enabling it to advance and expand its portfolio of dermatology products.

In July 2007, Serentis announced a £10.3 million financing co-led by founding investors MVM Life Science Partners LLP, Apposite Capital LLP and Novo A/S.  The planned second tranche of GBP5 million has now been expanded to £10 million with the support of the same co-lead investors and new investor Healthcare Private Equity, the Scottish Widows healthcare venture fund.

East Hill, the Boston-based venture capital firm which became a shareholder in Serentis  following Serentis’ acquisition of Surface Therapeutics in September 2007, also participated in the round. 

Bill Blair, CEO of Adamant Ventures, who manages the Healthcare Private Equity fund, has joined the Board of Serentis.

Tim Sharpington, CEO and co-founder of Serentis, said, “I am delighted with the additional support from our new and existing investors and I am pleased to welcome Bill Blair to the board. Since our initial financing a year ago, [we have] made significant progress in identifying and developing our pipeline. These funds will enable us to move our lead products towards key clinical milestones and to identify additional projects.”

Sharpington and his co-founders formerly worked for Arakis Ltd, which was bought by the Japanese company Sosei Co Ltd for £106.5 million in July 2005.

Serentis has adopted a similar business model of finding new indications for existing drugs based on fresh biological insights. However, that after reaching clinical proof of principle in the new indication, the aim will be to chemically modify compounds to produce novel chemical entities.

With an eye on the future Serentis established its headquarters in Delaware in the US but the company’s operations are based in Cambridge, UK. Sharpington’s co-founders are Alan Rothaul, CSO, who was head of biological sciences at Arakis, and Andy Baxter, R&D director, who was discovery director.