Selecta Biosciences, Inc. Closes $15.1M Series B Financing

WATERTOWN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Selecta Biosciences, Inc., a privately held biopharmaceutical company developing immunomodulatory nanoparticles for the treatment and prevention of human diseases, announced today that it has secured a $15.1M Series B financing. Existing investors, Polaris Venture Partners and Flagship Ventures were joined by NanoDimension and Professor Timothy A. Springer. “I am pleased by the strength of our investors whose track record of creating successful companies is a loud validation of our team, technology platform, and product opportunities” said Dr. Robert Bratzler, Executive Chairman of Selecta; he continued “I’m equally pleased by the enormous shareholder value that was created since our initial financing”. The proceeds of this financing will be used to expand Selecta’s research and development efforts and to advance the lead product candidate through initial clinical evaluation.

Aymeric Sallin, Founder and Managing Director of NanoDimension, said “We’re very excited by Selecta’s product-platform technology, which is being developed across broad areas of immunology from immune suppression, immune switching, to prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines. This comes at a time of significantly increased business interests in immunomodulation and Selecta’s technology, which is at the intersection of materials science and immunology, offers a robust and powerful platform for internal and partnered product development. We are extremely enthusiastic to support the Selecta team in advancing their technology toward commercialization”.

Professor Tim Springer, who is among the top cited scientists internationally said “I am delighted to be working with Selecta’s scientific founders, advisors, and management to build a world-class company at the convergence of immunobiology and nanotechnology”. Professor Springer, who previously founded LeukoSite (acquired by Millennium Pharmaceuticals) continued, “Our immune system has evolved over thousands of years to respond to pathogens which are in essence particles, and what’s remarkably compelling is that Selecta is taking advantage of our insights into the working of the immune system to develop first in-class immunomodulatory nanoparticles to improve the lives of patients”.

About Selecta Biosciences

Selecta Biosciences, Inc. is a venture backed biopharmaceutical company in Watertown, Massachusetts, developing the first generation of nanoparticle immunomodulatory drugs for the treatment and prevention of human diseases. Selecta's proprietary product platform technology combines recent advances in immunobiology with cutting-edge nanotechnology to develop targeted immunomodulatory nanoparticles. Selecta's targeted nanoparticles are rationally designed to deliver bioactive molecules to specific immune cells in the body. Selecta was founded based on complimentary research by three academic pioneers. The technology innovations of Professors Robert Langer (MIT) and Omid Farokhzad (Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School), two leaders in the fields of drug delivery and nanotechnology, have been combined with the insights of Professor Ulrich von Andrian (Harvard Medical School), a leader in the field of immunology, to enable Selecta’s broad and powerful product platform. Selecta was initially funded by Polaris Venture Partners and Flagship Ventures in May 2008 with a $2.5 million seed financing. For more information please visit the company website at www.selectabio.com.

About Flagship Ventures

Flagship Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on creating, financing and building innovative companies. Founded in 1999, Flagship manages over $500 million in early-stage funds and operates from its offices at Kendall Square in Cambridge, MA. With an active portfolio of over 40 companies, the firm's strategy is to balance its investments across three principal business sectors: Therapeutics, Life Science Tools & Diagnostics, and BioEnergy/Cleantech. During the past two decades Flagship's principals have been involved as founders or investors in many highly successful ventures including: Adnexus Therapeutics, Alere Medical, Aspect Medical, Celera Genomics, ChemGenics Pharmaceuticals, Color Kinetics, Cytyc, DataSage, Exact Sciences, Helicos Biosciences, Hypnion, IDEXX, Morphotek, PerSeptive Biosystems and TripAdvisor. For more information please visit www.flagshipventures.com.

About NanoDimension

NanoDimension is a venture capital firm committed to building companies developing market disruptive technologies on the nano-scale. Founded in 2002, and with offices in Europe and the United States, NanoDimension focuses on early to mid stage investments across business sectors. For additional information please visit www.nanodimension.com.

Polaris Venture Partners

Established in 1996, with offices in Waltham and Seattle, Polaris has over $3 billion under management. Polaris Venture Partners has helped build numerous market leading companies, including Acceleron Pharma, Accordant Health Services, Advanced Inhalation Research, Akamai Technologies, Allaire, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, American Superconductor, Aspect Medical Systems, Avici Systems, Centra Software, Classifieds2000, deCODE genetics, Exchange.com, Matrics, Microbia, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Paradigm Genetics, Powersoft, PSCI, SolidWorks and TransForm Pharmaceuticals. More information about Polaris Venture Partners is available at www.polarisventures.com.

Contacts

Selecta Biosciences, Inc.
Robert Bratzler, +1-617-923-1400
Executive Chairman