Surface(ing) for more immunotherapy

Hard on the heels of one of its fastest and most lucrative exits - the sale of CoStim Pharmaceuticals Inc. - Atlas Venture is backing another cancer immunotherapy play, Surface Oncology Inc.

Surface, which Atlas seeded last year, debuted last Thursday with a $35 million series A round led by the VC. New investors Fidelity Biosciences; Lilly Ventures; New Enterprise Associates (NEA); Amgen Ventures; and the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NBIR) joined the round. Former head of R&D at Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) Elliott Sigal, a venture partner at NEA, also participated as an investor and joined Surface's SAB. ...