Typewriter Therapeutics, Inc., an emerging leader in the development of innovative gene therapies for severe genetic disorders, today announced a $5 million seed financing from new investors AN Ventures and RA Capital Management, as well as existing investor ANRI. In conjunction with this financing, RA Capital Management Managing Director Laura Tadvalkar, PhD, and AN Ventures Managing Partner Ken Horne will join Typewriter’s Board of Directors. Ken Horne also serves as Chief Executive Officer of Typewriter.
Typewriter Therapeutics aims to deliver novel gene therapy treatments to patients suffering from diseases with limited or no clinical options. The company has hired a global team in Tokyo and Cambridge to advance its research platform. This early financing is part of a longer-term strategy to accelerate and strengthen the core capabilities at the heart of Typewriter’s broadly applicable platform.
“AN Ventures is thrilled to work together again with the RA Capital Management team to develop Typewriter Therapeutics,” said Ken Horne. “Typewriter exemplifies AN Ventures’ core thesis in building technology from Japan on the global stage.”
“RA Capital Management is excited to continue advancing Typewriter’s vision to develop transformative gene therapies,” added Dr. Tadvalkar. “Gene therapy has come a long way toward realizing its potential as a clinically relevant treatment modality. We believe Typewriter is at the forefront of several important advances in the field and is uniquely positioned to serve patients with severe genetic diseases.”
“Having been in the retrotransposon field for over 40 years, it is great to see the new groundswell of excitement from the scientific community and the pharmaceutical industry, reflecting both advances in technology and early but exciting data,” said Haruhiko Fujiwara, PhD, scientific co-founder of Typewriter Therapeutics and professor emeritus of The University of Tokyo. “This financing puts us in a great position to expand our team, accelerate the development of our products, and further build our unique gene therapy platform so we can pursue our vision of delivering breakthrough treatments to patients.”
Joining Dr. Fujiwara as co-founders of Typewriter Therapeutics are Dr. Thomas Eickbush, retired professor at the University of Rochester; Dr. James Collins, the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering & Science and Professor, Department of Biological Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Wyss Institute, Harvard University, and Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; Dr. Kei Endo, Associate Professor, Frontier Sciences, University of Tokyo; Dr. Jun Zhou, PhD; Dr. Victor Stone, MD; and members of RAVen, RA Capital Management’s internal incubator.