Last week, three companies reported more than $250 million in funding deals. Dive into the details below.
Aeglea BioTherapeutics Inc. is a step closer to being remade.
The Austin-based biotechnology company said June 22 that it purchased Spyre Therapeutics Inc. Aeglea also agreed to sell series A non-voting convertible preferred stock in a private placement to a group of investors led by Fairmount Funds Management LLC, which is expected to produce about $210 million.
Aeglea (Nasdaq: AGLE) previously focused on treatments for rare metabolic diseases. But it's been in a rut since it released underwhelming data for a drug candidate, laying off all but 10 of its staff in the spring, Fierce Biotech reported. Now it's shifting focus to inflammatory bowel disease — the new money will be used to advance Spyre's portfolio of potential IBD treatments. And the cash infusion is expected to fund company operations into 2026.
Harbor Health Team Inc., an Austin-based startup health care provider led partly by the former dean of Dell Medical School, has received a sizable injection of capital. The company said June 21 that it raised a $30 million series A round led by 8VC, with additional investment from Martin Ventures, Lemhi Ventures and Health 2047 Capital Partners.
Dr. Clay Johnston, the inaugural dean of Dell Med, and Tony Miller, a health care entrepreneur and investor, founded Harbor Health in September 2022 to provide primary and specialty care. The aim is to lower costs by being "proactive when it comes to people’s needs" and focusing "on achieving better outcomes," Johnston said in a statement.
Harbor Health already has three clinic locations, plus a mobile clinic that can visit schools and other locations. Company leaders said they plant to open seven more clinics by the end of this year, for 11 total, and grow to roughly 200 employees.
In addition to the fresh cash for Harbor Health, the funding marks another local deal for 8VC, the prominent venture capital firm of Joe Lonsdale that relocated to Austin from California a few years ago. Others in its portfolio include AgVend, The Boring Co., FloorFound, DocStation, Hearth and Zeno.
A German company that's using laser-based fusion to generate energy has set up shop in Austin and raised new funding.
Focused Energy, which spun out of the Technical University of Darmstadt in 2021, said today that it has secured an additional $11 million in series A funding. The round was led by Jackson, Wyoming-based Prime Movers Lab, as well as previous investors VCP Capital and Tony Florence. The new funds brought the company's total fundraising to $82 million.
The funding is key to the company's expansion and research into laser-based nuclear fusion, which it pitches as a climate-neutral and virtually inexhaustible energy source. Aside from the venture backing, the company earlier this spring landed a $3 million grant from the Department of Energy. It also locked down a $50 million award from the German Federal Agency, as well as $3 million from the German state of Hesse.
"We believe that Focused Energy is the leading inertial fusion company and the continued technical progress and support from the U.S. and German governments proves that this team is the most likely to commercialise laser-based fusion energy with economically competitive power plants," Prime Movers Lab founder and Focused Energy Chairman Dakin Sloss stated.
For more local deals, check out another recent funding wrap. And subscribe to Austin Business Journal for startup resources such as lists of venture capital and private equity firms, incubators and accelerators, angel investors and coworking providers.
