Billionaire family offices back healthcare and biotech startups in August. Published Thu, Sep 3 20268:00 AM EDT Updated An Hour Ago Listen 2min Key Points * Family offices made 52 direct investments in private companies in August, according to Fintrx. * About 20% of the month's investments went to biotech startups, including LifeMine Therapeutics, which raised $188 million from backers including Bezos Expeditions and Gates Frontier. * The artificial intelligence boom has fueled a rebound in venture funding for biopharma startups that already have drugs in testing. A version of this article first appeared in CNBC's Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox. Investment firms of ultra-wealthy families are helping fuel the venture capital rebound in biotechnology. In August, family offices made 52 direct investments in private companies, with biotech startups representing about 20% of transactions, according to data provided exclusively to CNBC by Fintrx, a private wealth intelligence platform. Stanley Druckenmiller's Duquesne Family Office, one of the most active family offices in the U.S., has backed at least four pharmaceuticals or life sciences companies this year, according to Fintrx. Last month, Duquesne participated in a $90 million Series C round for Epicrispr Biotechnologies. The 8-year-old startup is pioneering a new gene therapy for a rare muscle disorder known as facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, or FSHD. Druckenmiller said in January that Duquesne had made substantial investments in biotech due to the potential of artificial intelligence. "I knew because I've been on the board of Memorial Sloan Kettering for 30 years, that probably the best use case out there of AI is biotech through drug discovery, diagnostics, monitoring everything," he said in an interview conducted by Morgan Stanley. In August, the namesake family office of Jeff Bezos also joined a $188 million Series E for LifeMine Therapeutics, which uses AI to analyze fungal genomes to develop new drugs. LifeMine is currently testing a drug compound to prevent organ failure in transplant recipients. Bill Gates' venture capital firm, Gates Frontier, also participated in the megaround. The Inside Wealth newsletter by Robert Frank is your weekly guide to high-net-worth investors and the industries that serve them. Venture funding for biotechnology has rebounded strongly this year. U.S. and European biopharma startups raised a whopping $12.6 billion in the first half of 2026, a five-year high, according to analysis by Silicon Valley Bank, now a division of First Citizens Bank after its 2023 collapse and subsequent sale. That said, investors are writing fewer checks overall, especially for early-stage startups, with a greater share of funding going toward companies with drugs already in testing, according to SVB's analysis, citing its own data and data from PitchBook.

Follow the money: biological foundation models, automated bioanalysis, Predictive Cancer Care. August 26, 2026 By Bio-IT World Staff August 26, 2026 | LifeMine Therapeutics advances a novel treatment for organ transplantation; InduPro doses the first patient in a phase 1 study of a bispecific antibody-drug conjugate; Remepy advances an AI-enabled treatment for Parkinson's disease; and more. $263M: Series D and E for Organ Transplantation LifeMine Therapeutics announced $75 million in Series D and $188 million in Series E financing, totaling $263 million, to accelerate the clinical development of the company's lead program, LIFE-001, and advance its pipeline of transplantation and immunology therapies. LIFE-001 is a calcineurin activation inhibitor (CNai) delivered as a long-acting injectable and designed de novo to avoid the immunophilin-dependent organ damage associated with legacy calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs), such as cyclosporine, voclosporin, and tacrolimus. $152M: Series B for Engasertib for Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia Vaderis Therapeutics announced the closing of a private $152 million Series B financing and initiation of HEROIC, the company's global phase 3 clinical study evaluating engasertib (VAD044) in patients with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT), a rare genetic vascular disorder with no approved treatment options. Engasertib is being evaluated as a potential therapy for people living with HHT. The proceeds from the financing are expected to fund the company's planned operations through regulatory submissions and potential U.S. regulatory approval. $118M: Series B for Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency Treatment Claris Biotherapeutics closed a $118 million Series B financing. Proceeds will be used to complete Claris' ongoing clinical trials in patients with limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD), including a proof-of-concept study evaluating CSB-001 and a noninterventional natural history study. The financing will also support a planned pivotal program of CSB-001 in patients with LSCD and enable pre-commercialization activities. CSB-001 targets the underlying pathophysiology of LSCD by promoting corneal epithelial regeneration while modulating inflammation and fibrosis. $115M: Series B for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Treatment Expedition Therapeutics announced the closing of an oversubscribed $115 million Series B financing. The funds will support advancement of EXPD-101, the company's lead DPP1 inhibitor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), as well as expand its pipeline of therapies for inflammatory diseases and enhance research discovery. EXPD-101 is designed to target neutrophilic inflammation, an underlying driver of COPD. The first patient has been dosed in the phase 2 trial evaluating EXPD-101. $110M: Series C for Liver Transplantation Standard of Care Bridge to Life announced the completion of a $110 million Series C and debt financing. Proceeds will support the VitaSmart launch by expanding the field team and providing working capital to increase its reach among U.S. transplant centers. Other uses include advancing Bridge to Life's new product pipeline, including a proprietary viability assessment tool, broadening its organ preservation portfolio, and scaling global operations. Proceeds will refinance the company's credit facility to reduce outstanding leverage and lower its interest rate, as Bridge to Life has evolved from early development to commercial operations. $100M: Series B for Biological World Model for Drug Discovery Aureka Biotechnologies closed a $100 million Series B financing. The funds will be primarily used for research and large-scale training of its biological foundation models to improve performance on core tasks, such as de novo molecular design, biological structure modeling, and function prediction. Aureka will also upgrade Lab-in-the-Loop, its experiment-centered feedback engine, to strengthen the feedback loop between those models and its proprietary single-cell functional screening, high-throughput experimental validation, and drug development platforms. $77M: Series B for Bispecific Antibody-Drug Conjugate InduPro announced the closing of a $77 million Series B financing and the dosing of the first patient in a phase 1 clinical study of IDP-001, the company's lead oncology program. Proceeds from the financing will further support phase 1 clinical development and generation of early proof-of-concept data for IDP-001, as well as the advancement of InduPro's preclinical pipeline. IDP-001 is a bispecific antibody-drug conjugate targeting EGFR and a tumor-associated proximity antigen identified through InduPro's proximity-guided platform. The phase 1 study is enrolling adult participants with advanced squamous non-small cell lung cancer and other solid tumors. $75M: Series A for Atopic Dermatitis and Inflammatory Disease Infinimmune closed a $75 million Series A financing, which will be used to accelerate clinical development of Infinimmune's two lead programs in atopic dermatitis, support advancement of additional programs leveraging biology to address unmet clinical needs, and enable continued deployment of the company's Anthrobody discovery platform. The two programs are IFX-101, a monoclonal antibody targeting interleukin-22 (IL-22), and IFX-201, a monoclonal antibody targeting interleukin-13 (IL-13). IL-22 and IL-13 help regulate inflammation and are involved in diseases affecting the skin and lungs, such as eczema and asthma. $70M: Series C for Targeted Radiotherapeutics Ratio announced the closing of a $70 million Series C financing, which will advance the company's ongoing ATLAS study evaluating its lead radiotherapeutic asset [Ac-225]RTX-2358 in advanced sarcomas, as well as move its RLT candidate into the clinic. Ratio also plans to expand its discovery pipeline into new oncology targets, extending its radiopharmaceutical platform beyond its current indications and into additional tumor types. The company will also continue to advance its radiopharmaceutical technology and scale its manufacturing capabilities. $66M: Series D for Inclusion Body Myositis Treatment Abcuro closed a $66 million Series D financing, which will fund a new clinical study intended to support potential registration of ulviprubart, a monoclonal antibody targeting killer cell lectin-like receptor G1 for the treatment of patients with less severe inclusion body myositis. Abcuro has been in discussions with the FDA and expects to initiate the new study in the fourth quarter of this year. $46M: Series B for Rare Kidney Disease Treatment Mironid raised $46 million in a Series B funding round. The funds will advance clinical development of the company's treatment for autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), a life-threatening hereditary kidney disease. ADPKD is caused predominantly by mutations in the PKD1 or PKD2 genes and is characterized by uncontrolled growth of fluid-filled cysts in the kidney. Mironid's LoAc small molecules target cyclic AMP (cAMP), a signaling molecule involved in the ADPKD disease process. According to the company, cAMP contributes to both cell proliferation and fluid secretion. $36M: Series A for Parkinson's Disease Drug Trial Remepy announced the closing of a $36 million Series A financing round. The proceeds will support the company's pharmaceutical co-development partnerships, expansion of its hybrid drug pipeline and platform, and global phase 3 clinical development of Hybridopa, Remepy's lead program for Parkinson's disease. The phase 3 trial is scheduled to start in the fourth quarter of 2026. The company describes hybrid drugs as a class of treatments that combine prescription medicines with personalized, AI-driven therapeutic apps. Hybrid drugs are designed to integrate pharmacology with adaptive physical, cognitive, and behavioral interventions into a single treatment. $30M: Series A for Accelerating Drug Development Dash Bio raised $30 million in Series A financing. Drug development remains one of the most resource- and time-consuming endeavors in healthcare, but the infrastructure supporting it has changed little. Bioanalysis, which includes lab-based work measuring a drug's safety and efficacy in preclinical and clinical samples, remains reliant on manual processes and paper records in many settings. Dash Bio is developing a bioanalysis platform that uses robotics, laboratory software, and automated assay workflows. The company's 24,000-square-foot GLP laboratory uses workflows spanning ELISA, MSD, qPCR, ddPCR, and LC-MS, which removes much of the tedious labor associated with traditional bioanalysis CROs. $25M: Seed Financing for Predictive Cancer Care Platform Bios Life launched from stealth mode with $25 million in seed funding. The company is developing a personalized surveillance strategy aimed at assisting high-risk individuals and cancer survivors, two groups that often receive fragmented and reactive care. More than 40% of individuals are projected to be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime, and more than 30% of cases are diagnosed at stages 3 or 4, according to the company. Bios Life's platform integrates advanced multimodality foundation models with direct patient care. The company has also announced a strategic partnership with Tempus to enhance the training and validation of its predictive models.