In December, Armon Sharei launched a new startup, Portal Biotechnologies. The startup is essentially developing the next generation of the tech that his former company, SQZ Technologies, was known for. Now the new venture has $5 million in pre-seed funding.
Portal is focused on simplifying the approach to delivering things inside cells. The company is aiming to speed up advances related to RNA and gene editing with their approach, as well as implement AI-driven discovery, according to a news release.
Sharei left SQZ, the company he founded before Portal, in late 2022, around the same time as the biotech firm laid off about 60% of its workers. In 2023, it parted with nearly all of the remaining staff.
Earlier this month, SQZ sold its assets to Canada’s largest biotech company for $11.8 million. Two other ex-SQZ employees were part of the launch of Portal.
There’s a key difference between SQZ’s model and what Portal is doing, Sharei told the Business Journal. Portal doesn’t make its own drugs, but rather will integrate its product in the drug-making process at other biotech firms. The collaborations SQZ and other biotechs were part of were too complex and made room for too much risk, he said. Portal’s approach, he added, is to make a better product for other drugmakers to use.
- Never miss a startup funding story: sign up for Boston Business Journal's emails to get the latest business news in your inbox twice a day.
The $5 million investment was led by Pear VC, with participation from Conscience VC and 10x Capital.
The funding is expected to support the continued development of Portal’s first product suite, according to a news release. The product is a mechanical delivery system, which according to Portal can facilitate the delivery of numerous types of complex molecules into many cell types.
“Our hope is that by providing robust modularized solutions across scales, we will enable novel biological insights, accelerate development of new generation small or large molecules, and streamline cell therapy design and manufacturing,” Sharei said in the release.
With the announcement of the funding, Portal said it has about two dozen early-adopters, including unnamed large pharmaceutical companies. Portal’s aim is to partner with companies working directly in the cell therapy space, but the Portal itself won’t be involved in direct administration to patients.
Subscribe to our BioFlash, TechFlash and Real Estate newsletters — all free.
