Carlyle, Warburg join $123m series D round in Chinese biotech firm Abbisko

Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Abbisko Therapeutics has raised US$123 million in the recent completion of its series D round. The fundraise was led by The Carlyle Group, with Warburg Pincus, OrbiMed, Lake Bleu Capital, and an unnamed Boston-based investor as the joint leading backers.

Also participating in the round were Janchor Partners, Sage Partners, SHC, Greater Bay Area Homeland Development Fund, and another undisclosed strategic investor. Existing backers including Lilly Asia Ventures, Temasek, Qiming Venture Partners, Hankang Capital, and CICC Capital also joined in.

Photo credit: Abbisko Therapeutics

Founded in 2016, Abbisko works to discover and develop new medicines for unmet medical needs, with a focus on oncology. The company said it’s zeroing in on targeted therapy and immune-oncology areas, aiming to create best-in-class small molecule drugs.

Since its establishment, the biotech startup has had four programs advance into clinical stages, with seven investigational new drug approvals already obtained in different regions globally, said the company.

According to Abbisko, the proceeds from the latest round will go into advancing its clinical programs and expanding its pre-clinical pipeline. The round pushes the company’s total amount raised to US$263 million.

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“Warburg Pincus, with a long history of investing in life sciences globally, will leverage its network to help the company to accelerate global partnership and global clinical development,” Fred Hassan, a board member of American biopharmaceutical company Amgen, commented on behalf of Warburg Pincus.

Earlier this week, Warburg Pincus also led the US$100 million funding round of consumer electronics startup BoAt, which plans to use the funds to ramp up its research and development capabilities, among others.