Swedish fund EQT Ventures and French fund Sanofi Ventures have co-led the Series B financing round of Spanish biotech company SpliceBio, which specialises in new therapies for genetic diseases, raising $135 million. Other participants in this transaction include Roche Venture Fund and all the existing investors: New Enterprise Associates, UCB Ventures, Ysios Capital, Gilde Healthcare, Novartis Venture Fund and Asabys Partners.

The new funds raised will go towards the clinical development of SpliceBio’s therapy for Stargardt disease, a genetic eye disorder that causes progressive vision loss and blindness. The funding will also allow it to expand its portfolio of genetic medicines for indications in ophthalmology, neurology and other therapeutic areas.

Innovative intein platform
Stargardt disease is the most common inherited condition causing macular degeneration, affecting one in 8,000 to 10,000 people. Caused by mutations in the ABCA4 gene, and resulting in a dysfunctional ABCA4 protein, there are currently no approved treatments to treat it.

The Spanish company’s innovative platform using inteins (which are part of proteins) allows large genes to be split into smaller fragments and administered separately, subsequently being reassembled to create the complete proteins needed to treat diseases. This approach could benefit the entire target group of patients, regardless of which of the over 1,200 known mutations responsible for the disease they have. The potential of SpliceBio goes much further because it would overcome the barrier of many other genetic disorders to treatments involving large gene delivery.

AI-powered business software
The other notable Series B round in recent weeks has involved Spanish company Abacum, which specialises in AI-powered business software, and which has raised $60 million. US fund Scale Venture Partners has led this round, arguing that spreadsheets are no longer sufficient for managing budgets, forecasts and metrics in real time.

According to Scale Venture Partners, “Abacum is the answer”, thanks to a platform that prioritises AI and “is transforming the way finance teams operate. By integrating data from across the organisation, it automates reporting, generates real-time projections and improves decision-making. What used to take months now takes weeks, and what used to take days now takes hours.”

Modern, collaborative and intuitive
Abacum’s financial planning and analysis (FP&A) platform differs from existing platforms in that it is not only suitable for large companies. In recent years, other companies have emerged to modernise these tasks, but it is Abacum, according to Scale Venture Partners, that emerges as the winner and redefines “the meaning of FP&A software”. It has up to 70% of the market as potential customers on the horizon.

Abacum is “modern, collaborative and intuitive, powerful enough to drive adoption beyond the CFO’s office, while striking the perfect balance between enterprise-level functionality and ease of use for a mid-sized business,” explains the new investor. Furthermore, adopting AI “can replace hours or days of manual reporting to the board and executives”.

^{Photo: EQT Group}