Our Japan Ventures portfolio company, Beam Therapeutics, has today announced it has raised $135m in Series B funding. It plans to use this funding to advance the company's development of next-generation CRISPR technologies, expand its pipeline of base editing programmes and further extend its scientific and technical leadership.

Redmile Group, LLC, Cormorant Asset Management, GV, Altitude Life Science Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners, Omega Funds and Eight Roads's sister fund, F-Prime Capital all participated in this round alongside our Japan Ventures team. 

“Since the launch of Beam last year, we have made significant progress toward our goal of developing base editors as a new class of precision genetic medicines,” said John Evans, chief executive officer of Beam Therapeutics. “We now have 10 active programs underway and have expanded our team to more than 70 employees. We are thrilled to have the support and partnership from this group of world-class investors to help us achieve our mission. With this funding, we will continue to expand our team and capabilities, extend our leadership position in base editing technology, and move our pipeline towards clinical development where we hope to make an impact for patients with serious genetic diseases.”