Biotech startup Amberstone Biosciences raises $12M Series A to develop immunotherapeutics to treat solid tumor cancers and other diseases

Amberstone Biosciences, a Laguna Hills, California-based biotech startup that is focused on discovering novel immunotherapies, announced today it has secured $12 million in Series A funding to develop immunotherapeutics to treat solid tumors cancers, and other diseases.

The round was led by Viva BioInnovator, Co-win Ventures, and Sinovation Ventures, with participation from ChangRong Capital, Lifespan Investments, and existing shareholders. Amberstone will use the fresh capital infusion to advance its highly differentiated tumor microenvironment-activated therapeutic programs including bispecific antibodies and immunocytokines to the investigational new drug application (IND) enabling stage.

Founded in 2016 by George Wu, Amberstone Biosciences is an emerging biotherapeutics company developing a novel class of targeted and conditionally active immunotherapeutics to treat solid tumor cancers and other diseases. Amberstone Biosciences’ pipeline is driven by an innovative high-throughput single-cell functional discovery platform and strong expertise in an interdisciplinary field of biology, engineering, and therapeutic development.

We are tremendously grateful for the strong support from our new and existing investors,” said Amberstone Biosciences President and CEO, George Wu, PhD. “With our unique Tumor Microenvironment Activated Therapeutics (T-MATE™) programs, we aim to develop safer and more effective therapies to benefit cancer patients. The funding and broad expertise and resources in the field provided by our investors will take us another step closer to our mission.”

“Amberstone’s T-MATE therapeutic molecules enabled by its innovative single-cell discovery engine represents a real breakthrough in immune-oncology. We are thoroughly impressed by the Amberstone team’s rich experience in the cancer biology space. Viva is excited to work with Amberstone and syndicate partners to support its mission to provide next-generation innovative treatment options to patients,” said Han Dai, Ph.D., Chief Innovation Officer of Viva Biotech and Head of Viva BioInnovator.

“T cell immunotherapy has encountered great challenges in the complex microenvironment of solid tumors. The T-MATE molecules discovered through Amberstone’s world-leading cross-disciplinary drug discovery engine will break through the bottleneck of traditional methods and bring new hope to the treatment of solid tumors. Co-win Ventures is thrilled to work with Amberstone’s team and co-investors to explore the next generation of immunotherapies in solid tumors,” said Xin Huang, MD/PhD, a managing partner of Co-win Ventures.

“The expertise and strengths of Amberstone core team synergize well with one another. We are optimistic with the company’s uncapped growth potential. Amberstone exemplifies our firm’s investment strategy and mission to support deep-tech innovative entrepreneurs and companies,” said Sinovation Ventures’ partner in healthcare, Mr. Peter Wu.