SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 24, 2023 — ExcepGen, a genetic medicine startup, emerged from stealth after the successful completion of its newest funding round. The most recent $4 million round, which brings the company’s total seed funding to $14 million, was led by RA Capital Management and backed by Gravity Fund, Apollo Projects (Sam Altman), and other premier investors.
ExcepGen has been quietly advancing its groundbreaking technology to make nucleic acid therapeutics much more powerful. It works by encoding a specialized “shield” protein alongside the main nucleic acid cargo, which improves how cells react to the foreign DNA or RNA and prevents negative cell signaling. By this mechanism, ExcepGen’s technology could massively expand the reach of both DNA-based and RNA-based genetic medicines by enhancing their effectiveness and tolerability.
“We are excited to support the potential of ExcepGen’s novel platform to enhance nucleic acid therapeutics across a broad range of indications”, said Cosmas Giallourakis, Venture Partner at RA Capital Management.
“Our mission at ExcepGen is to unlock nucleic acid medicines,” said Thomas Folliard, CEO and co-founder at ExcepGen. “This funding validates our aim to make RNA and DNA-based drugs a cornerstone of therapeutics. We are excited to use this new funding to prove out the value of our technology in different therapeutic spaces.”
“We couldn’t be more excited about supporting the ExcepGen team. Engineering cellular response to mRNA vaccines and therapeutics represents a significant leap forward in the development of mRNA technology and, we believe, ultimately allows mRNA technology to reach its full potential. It’s easy to get excited about ExcepGen from a technology and investment standpoint, but we’re most excited about what this technology potentially means in terms of patient outcomes.” said Seth DeGroot, a partner at Gravity Fund.
The newly secured funding will play a pivotal role in accelerating ExcepGen’s research and development efforts, as well as advancing its collaborations with other companies.
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About ExcepGen:
ExcepGen is an early-stage biotechnology company at the forefront of the nucleic acid therapeutics revolution. Leveraging its proprietary platform, the company aims to expand the boundaries for RNA and DNA-based therapies and open the door to entirely new classes of genetic medicines. ExcepGen was co-founded by Barbara Mertins and Thomas Folliard and is based in San Francisco.
SOURCE ExcepGen Inc
