New Funding Led by Moderna, Bayer, Brings Metagenomi's Series B to $275M

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Metagenomi is kicking off the new year the way we all wish we were - with an extra $100 million. The biotech scored the cash in a Series B extension financing round announced Thursday, bringing its total Series B to $275 million.

The financing round was led by Leaps by Bayer, Moderna and several others, signaling that Metagenomi’s efforts in 2022 did not go unnoticed by its big pharma peers.

The company presented at conference after conference throughout the year, and in November, it inked a deal with Ionis to deliver investigational medicines for up to four targets. 

Brian Thomas, CEO and founder of Metagenomi, echoed that sentiment in Thursday’s announcement. He touted the company’s recent efforts to expand its gene editing portfolio and launch its first nonhuman primate studies. He stated the extra cash gives his team “visibility on initial clinical milestones” and an expanded in vivo pipeline. 

Partnerships have been at the core of Metagenomi’s strategy for some time. The deal with Ionis is estimated to generate a potential $3 billion in biobucks, which is a noteworthy amount for even the largest of pharma companies. 

And in 2021, Moderna announced it had chosen Metagenomi as a vessel to foray into gene editing.

Though a big deal for Metagenomi, the partnership wasn’t exactly a surprise, as Eric Huang, general manager and chief scientific officer of Moderna Genomics, had been a member of Metagenomi’s science advisory board for some time. This deal was the biotech’s first partnership. 

In Thursday's announcement, Thomas commended his team for ramping up its efforts to strengthen “strategic business development alliances,” which could signal additional partnership announcements in the near future.