Future Planet invests in Vaccitech's $168M Series B

London, UK – 17th March 2021: Future Planet Capital has invested in a $168m Series B financing announced today by Vaccitech Ltd.  Future Planet joins other leading investors including M&G Investment Management, Tencent, Gilead Sciences, Monaco Constitutional Reserve Fund and fellow existing investor, Oxford Sciences Innovation. As part of the Series B financing, $43 million in convertible loan notes previously issued by Vaccitech will convert into Series B shares, resulting in total gross proceeds to Vaccitech of $168 million before expenses.

Douglas Hansen-Luke Founder & EXec Chair

Future Planet Capital

Douglas Hansen-Luke, Executive Chairman of Future Planet Capital, explained:

"Our decision to support Vaccitech last year, before the results of the COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca trials were known, has been vindicated by the vaccine’s approval for emergency use by national and international regulators. The success of the COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca has increased our confidence in Vaccitech’s immunotherapy platform and our continuing support is signalled by our investment today.”

Bill Enright, CEO

Vaccitech

Bill Enright, CEO of Vaccitech, said:

“We expect this financing to enable us to reach key value inflection points for our lead programs. We now look forward to advancing key programs towards generating proof-of-concept data in indications with significant need of effective new treatments.”

Ed Phillips, Deal Lead

Future Planet Capital

Ed Phillips, Head of Origination at Future Planet Capital, concluded:

“This is a concrete example of our vision in action – financing the best minds to address global challenges. We look forward to working with other entrepreneurs and businesses dedicated to solving global challenges in the future.”

Vaccitech is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of novel immunotherapeutics and vaccines for the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases and cancer; in 2020 it co-invented a COVID-19 vaccine candidate with the University of Oxford, AZD1222, which is known as the COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca.

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For further information, please contact;

Future Planet Capital: Ed Philips, Head of Origination: e.phillips@futureplanetcapital.com

Sciad Communications: Richard Anderson: richard@sciad.com, Emma Pickup: emma@sciad.com

Vaccitech raises $168M Series B to progress three Phase 2 trials

Oxford, UK – Vaccitech Ltd (“Vaccitech”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of novel immunotherapeutics and vaccines for the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases and cancer, today announces that it has raised $168 million in a Series B financing. This includes $43 million in convertible loan notes previously issued by Vaccitech that converted into Series B shares.

The Series B financing round was led by M&G Investment Management (part of M&G plc), with further participation from new investors including Tencent, Gilead Sciences, Monaco Constitutional Reserve Fund, and Future Planet Capital among others. The Series B financing round was also supported by existing investors, including Oxford Sciences Innovation.

“We expect this financing to enable us to reach key value inflection points for our lead programs,” said Bill Enright, Chief Executive Officer of Vaccitech. “We now look forward to advancing key programs towards generating proof-of-concept data in indications with significant need of effective new treatments.”

The proceeds from the financing will support the continued development of three infectious disease and immuno-oncology programs. The programs include:

• A Phase 1/2 clinical trial of VTP-300 in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. The first patient in the trial was dosed in February 2021.

• A Phase 1/2 clinical trial of VTP-200 in patients with persistent, high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection.

• A Phase 1/2 clinical trial of VTP-850 in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor in patients with prostate cancer.

Vaccitech’s proprietary prime-boost platform combines modified simian adenoviral vectors (known as ChAdOx1 or ChAdOx2) to prime a targeted immune response with the Modified Vaccinia Ankara virus (MVA) to boost the targeted immune response against cells infected with a virus or tumor cells. Vaccitech’s heterologous prime-boost approach has been demonstrated to drive powerful immune responses, including the leading CD8+ T cell stimulation profile in humans, to date. In addition to the HBV, HPV and prostate cancer programs, Vaccitech’s pipeline includes product candidates targeting infectious disease (including MERS coronavirus and Herpes Zoster) and cancer (including non-small cell lung cancer).

“Vaccitech is aiming to address serious global public health challenges in both infectious disease and cancer with their T cell inducing immunotherapy platform,” said Jack Daniels, Chief Investment Officer of M&G plc. “We believe their innovative approach, based on foundational research performed at the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, could provide a solution for many serious diseases.”

Media contacts:

Katja Stout, Scius Communications (EU)

Direct: +44 (0) 7789435990

Email: katja@sciuscommunications.com

Ryo Imai / Robert Flamm, Ph.D. (US), Burns McClellan, Inc.

212-213-0006 ext. 315 / 364

Email: Rimai@burnsmc.com / rflamm@burnsmc.com

Henry Hodge, Vaccitech

Direct: +44 (0) 7533 421 442

Email: henry.hodge@vaccitech.co.uk

Future Planet Capital announces Partnership with Owl Ventures

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Future Planet Capital, the world’s first global platform to invest in leading universities and the “centres of innovation” that surround them, announces a limited partnership investment in Owl Ventures, a world-leading venture capital fund that invests in education technology companies. Owl Ventures will be Future Planet Capital’s strategic partner in the education sector.

Based in San Francisco and founded in 2014, Owl Ventures closed its $185m second fund in October 2017. Owl Ventures has invested in numerous fast growing transformative companies such as Accelerate Learning, a comprehensive digital PreK-12 STEM curriculum; Lingo Live, a language and communications programme; Quizlet, one of the largest educational platforms in the world; and RaiseMe, an online scholarship platform. 

Future Planet Capital press release: Thursday 27 April 2017

Congenica, a world leader in clinical genomics software for inherited diseases, today announced completion of its recently announced Series B funding round with additional investments from new strategically important investors BGI Genomics (BGI), a recognized global leader in genomics, Healthlink Capital (Healthlink), another well-established China-based life-science investor and Future Planet Capital, a global innovation fund.