Singapore healthtech startup Hummingbird banks $19m in series B round

Singapore-based biotherapeutics startup Hummingbird Bioscience has raised US$19 million in a series B round co-led by Korean investors Mirae Asset Venture Investment and GNTech Venture Capital.

New backers Delian Capital, Mirae Asset Capital, DAValue-GiltEdge, HB Investment, Wooshin Venture Investment, and Kiwoom Investment-Shinhan Capital also participated in the round, alongside existing investors Heritas Capital and Seeds Capital.

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Hummingbird focuses on the development of new breakthrough precision antibody therapeutics for difficult-to-treat conditions through its proprietary rational antibody discovery platform.

It plans to use the new capital to support the discovery of new disease targets, expand its pipeline of antibody therapeutics, and bankroll projects that are part of its multi-target collaboration efforts with biotech firm Amgen signed earlier this year.

The company said that its current lead portfolio assets – which include HMBD-001, an anti-HER3 antibody, and HMBD-002, an anti-VISTA antibody – are expected to enter first-in-human clinical trials in the second half of next year, following regulatory submissions.

In July, Hummingbird secured additional capital in an extended series A round to further develop its lead assets and support the expansion of its laboratory facilities.

It also received a US$13.1 million product development grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas and established strategic collaboration with Cancer Research UK.

To date, Hummingbird has secured more than US$60 million in funding, according to a statement. It has presence in Houston, Texas, and South San Francisco, California in addition to Singapore.