Sana Biotechnology today formally announced that it has raised more than $700 million in venture funding — one of the largest venture financing deals in the life sciences industry and one of the biggest rounds on record in Seattle.
“Sana is dedicated to modulating genes in cells as well as replacing damaged cells in the body,” Sana CEO Steve Harr said in a press release. “The commitment from this group of long-term investors enables us to concentrate on making discoveries that overcome the most important challenges to making gene and cell therapies that improve the lives of a broad swath of patients.”
The official announcement of the funding round — the exact amount was not disclosed — comes 17 months after Axios first reported that the company was in the process of raising $800 million to $1 billion. Since that time, Sana has kept a relatively low profile. In fact, the company’s website only lists three press releases, including today’s funding announcement.
(UPDATE: Two corporate filings by Sana with the SEC from June 26 indicate that the company raised $45.8 million and $821 million, which would bring total funding to $866.8 million. A company spokesperson said the filings include total capital raised to date, plus the value of non-cash assets such as licenses).
Sana declined to comment on its valuation.
A venture round of more than $700 million is hard to fathom. To put that number in perspective, consider this: In Washington state during the first quarter, a total of $381 million was invested across 43 deals, according to the PwC MoneyTree Survey.
Sana has a strong Seattle biotech pedigree, tracing its roots to Juno Therapeutics. Juno, which went public in 2014 and sold to Celgene for $9 billion in 2018, was a spinout of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Seattle Children’s Research Institute.
Sana’s CEO, Steve Harr, is the former CFO at Juno, and its chief development officer, Sunil Agarwal, is Juno’s former president of research and development. Its executive chairman is Hans Bishop, the former CEO of Juno.
Financial backers of the company include ARCH Venture Partners, Flagship Pioneering, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Baillie Gifford, F-Prime Capital, Alaska Permanent Fund, the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, Bezos Expeditions, GV, Omega Funds, Altitude Life Science Ventures, and multiple unnamed institutional investors.
Bezos Expeditions is the investment firm of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who was also an early investor in Juno.
The company employs 230 people, with offices in Seattle, Cambridge and South San Francisco.
