Inspired by scientist CEOs, Seattle startup lands $9.75M to build up drug discovery platform
Summary
Pino started postdoctoral studies in Philadelphia and Federation took a job at Seattle biotech company SEngine Precision Medicine, which markets a test to analyze tumors at the molecular level. And thats when Talus came about, said Federation.Pino and Federation were more familiar with biotech models in which venture capital firms build a leadership team and find a seasoned CEO, a trend more common on the East Coast, said Federation.But in Seattle, the pair were inspired by SEngine and companies like UW Institute for Protein Design spinout A-Alpha Bio, led by CEOs who helped develop the underlying technology. Other Seattle companies led by scientific founders include Parse Biosciences, Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence spinout Modulus Therapeutics, and IPD spinout Monod Bio.Over time we were able to meet some of those people and learn about the fact that this [scientific founder-led model] is becoming more common in biology, said Federation.Deep familiarity with their technique enables Federation and Pino to effectively communicate with potential partners and collaborate closely with other scientists. Weve been so deeply embedded in this technology we can understand how it should be built and how it should grow, said Federation.Participants in the seed round of funding include FundersClub, Fifty Years, Boom Capital, Milad Alucozai (BoxOne Ventures) and Y Combinator. Angel investors include biotech executives Alok Tayi, Robert Wetzel, Alice Zhang, Ethan Perlstein, and Matt De Silva.