Walking Fish Therapeutics Closes $73 Million Series A Financing

Company announces new investments by Northpond Ventures and First Spark Ventures

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Walking Fish Therapeutics, a leader in B cell therapeutics, today announced the completion of an oversubscribed Series A financing, raising a total of $73 million. The additional investment, co-led by Northpond Ventures and First Spark Ventures, with support from Terra Magnum Capital Partners, will be used to advance a pipeline of B cell therapeutics for oncology, rare disease, regenerative medicine, autoimmune disease, and recombinant antibody production. Walking Fish Therapeutics made its debut in September 2021 with the launch of Series A financing led by Emerson Collective, Illumina Ventures, and Quan Capital. Daniel Janse, Ph.D. from Northpond Ventures and Manish Kothari, Ph.D. from First Spark Ventures will be joining the board of directors.

“Dr. Williams has an inspiring vision to bring B cell therapies to the forefront of medicine,” said Daniel Janse, Ph.D., Director at Northpond Ventures. “Our financial investment reflects the fund’s broad commitment to identify and empower scientific breakthroughs that will transform healthcare. Northpond is united with Walking Fish’s mission and technological approach to engineer and develop new B cell therapies for patients with unmet needs.”

Since the launch of Series A financing in September, Walking Fish's platform for protein factories and oncology applications has continued to demonstrate positive preclinical data across multiple indications. The additional proceeds will accelerate platform development and further establish Walking Fish as the leader in the rapidly emerging B cell therapeutics field.

“Our decision to join Walking Fish’s Series A investment pool was an easy one,” said Manish Kothari, Ph.D., Partner at First Spark Ventures. “Dr. Williams’ and his team’s extensive experience in exploring, expanding, and commercializing first-in-class therapies gave us the utmost confidence in our investment. We share their fundamentals-driven approach to develop truly breakthrough solutions for patients, and we look forward to our ongoing partnership.”

“Our team at Walking Fish welcomes Northpond Ventures and First Spark Ventures to an already world-class team of investors,” says Co-Founder and CEO, Dr. Lewis “Rusty” Williams. “Recent Walking Fish innovations in B cell engineering and manufacturing have enabled expansion of our pipeline to include new product opportunities. We believe strongly in the power of B cell therapeutics in applications spanning oncology to protein deficiency diseases, and we are confident the support of our new investors will enable us to further advance this emerging field of treatments.”

About Walking Fish Therapeutics

A leader in B cell medicines, Walking Fish Therapeutics has made critical advances in engineering technologies to rapidly advance cell-based therapeutics to treat serious diseases, concentrating on oncology, rare disease, regenerative medicine, autoimmune disease, and recombinant antibody production. For more information and important updates, please visit https://www.walkingfishtx.com/