RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Kriya Therapeutics, which has operations in the Triangle and Silicon Valley, is even more flush with cash than a year ago, adding a second round of financing totalling $100 million.

The news announced Wednesday follows an $80.5 million Series A round announced just a year ago.

The biotech startup is developing of gene therapies for highly serious diseases, such as type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

“In recent years we have seen the promise of gene therapy become a reality for the treatment of a number of devastating diseases. However, the field has been constrained by critical limitations in manufacturing technology, vector design capabilities and cost,” said Shankar Ramaswamy, an M.D. and the firm’s cofounder as well as CEO.

“Kriya was formed with the mission of revolutionizing how gene therapies are designed, developed and produced by fully integrating advanced manufacturing technologies, computational tools and development capabilities within a single company,” he added in the announcement. “With the support of our new and existing investors, we believe that Kriya is well positioned to deliver transformative improvements in cost, scale and efficiency that will help the gene therapy field achieve its full potential across a range of therapeutic areas.”

Patient Square Capital led the new round.  Other new investors Woodline Partners LP, CAM Capital, Hongkou and Alumni Ventures. Serries A investors also participated, including QVT, Dexcel Pharma, Foresite Capital, Bluebird Ventures (associated with Sutter Hill Ventures), Narya Capital, Amplo, Paul Manning, and Asia Alpha. Transhuman Capital backed a seed round in 2019 and has followed up in the later rounds.

Kriya said financing proceeds would go towards supporting the development of the company’s pipeline, internal discovery engine, and proprietary GMP manufacturing infrastructure.

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