BioCentury
ARTICLE | Emerging Company Profile

Lightspeed, Klausner back Stanford cell therapy spinout Orca in new $192M round

Orca Bio is developing allogeneic cell therapies designed to reduce toxicity

June 17, 2020 11:01 AM UTC

With the completion of a new $192 million series D round, Stanford spinout Orca Bio has now raised nearly $300 million to develop and manufacture allogeneic cell therapies that use controlled formulations designed to reduce toxicity compared with traditional bone marrow transplants.

Orca Biosystems Inc. has been operating quietly since its 2016 establishment to build upon work done in the academic setting by the three co-founders on its management team. The team worked with Stanford University professor Irv Weissman, who is director of the university’s Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine and an Orca Bio co-founder and adviser...