Entrepreneurs working to develop new therapies often struggle to find the cash they need to turn their million-dollar ideas into million—or billion—dollar companies. But for some, startup funding seems to be flowing freely, and in larger sums than it did in the past. In December, Juno Therapeutics announced that it had raised a whopping $120 million in its first bid for venture capital (VC) to develop cancer therapies that leverage the power of the immune system.
Juno isn't the first biotech to raise $100 million or more at such an early stage, called a 'Series A' round of funding. In 2009, for example, Clovis Oncology of Boulder, Colorado, took in $145 million in its Series A phase, an industry record that still holds to this day. But whereas funding for Clovis and others arrived in a staggered fashion as the companies met certain goals—what's known in the VC world as 'tranching'—“this is all money that's committed without milestones,” says Juno cofounder Robert Nelsen, a managing director at ARCH Venture Partners in Chicago, one of Juno's main investors. That makes the one-off cash infusion for Seattle-based Juno the largest such early financing deal in biotech history.
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