Follow the Money: AKT1-Selective Inhibitors, Vision Restoration Treatments, Neurology and Neuropsychiatric Treatments

By Clinical Research Staff 

April 30, 2026 | Terremoto Biosciences advances lead AKT1-selective inhibitor programs through phase 1 clinical development; Ray Therapeutics provides support of late-stage clinical development and commercial readiness for the company’s lead program in retinitis pigmentosa; Tortugas advances its two lead candidates; and more. 

$300M: Series A for Autoimmune and Inflammatory Disease Therapies 

Beeline Medicines announced its official debut with a $300 million Series A financing. Beeline Medicines is advancing a differentiated pipeline of precision therapies grounded in validated biology, powered by potential best-in-class molecular designs, and driven by an efficient clinical development strategy that prioritizes addressing high unmet patient needs. Beeline Medicines’ lead program Afimetoran is a selective, small molecule, once-daily, equipotent TLR7/8 inhibitor that has the potential to be a best-in-disease oral therapy for lupus. Other programs include BMS-986326, a novel IL-2-CD25 fusion protein in phase 1b development for atopic dermatitis and lupus, and Lomedeucitinib (formerly BMS-986322): A potent, small molecule, once-daily, oral, allosteric TYK2 inhibitor. 

$150M: Series B for Macrocyclic Peptide Drug Discovery 

Syneron Bio successfully closed its Series B financing. Proceeds from this financing will be primarily used to further advance the intelligent evolution of the company's proprietary macrocyclic peptide discovery platform, Synova, and to accelerate the progression of its diversified innovative pipeline into clinical development. 

$137M: Series B for Precision Bispecific Antibody-Drug Conjugates 

Sidewinder Therapeutics announced the closing of an oversubscribed $137 million Series B financing. Sidewinder’s mission focuses on developing bispecific antibody-drug conjugates designed to target receptor co-complexes that are highly expressed on certain solid tumors. The pipeline features bispecific antibodies engineered from internally discovered antibody sequences and finely tuned to target tumor-specific co-complexes consisting of an oncogenic driver receptor and an internalizing receptor. Precise targeting of these co-complexes enhances both tumor cell specificity and internalization, thereby improving the delivery of drugs to cancer cells while avoiding normal cells. The company expects to advance its lead program into clinical development in 2027.

$125M: Series B for Vision Restoration Treatments 

Ray Therapeutics closed an upsized and oversubscribed $125 million Series B financing. The funds will support late-stage clinical development and commercial readiness for the company’s lead program RTx-015 in retinitis pigmentosa, as well as clinical studies for RTx-021 in Stargardt Disease and Geographic Atrophy. RTx-015 is Ray Therapeutics’ lead optogenetic gene therapy that aims to restore functional vision to those with advanced visual impairment. 

$108M: Series C for AKT1-Selective Inhibitor Programs 

Terremoto Biosciences closed a $108 million Series C financing round. Proceeds will be used to advance lead AKT1-selective inhibitor programs through phase 1 clinical development for patients with cancer and rare diseases, such as hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia. Terremoto’s lead oncology program, TER-2013, is currently in phase 1 clinical development for solid tumors harboring genetic alterations in PIK3CA, AKT, or PTEN, which are implicated in a significant proportion of cancers, including more than half of patients with HR-positive breast cancer. The company is also advancing TER-4480, a program targeting hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia, a rare, inherited bleeding disorder characterized by abnormal blood vessel formation and significant morbidity, with currently no approved therapies. 

$106M: Seed Financing and Series A for Neurology and Neuropsychiatric Disorder Treatments 

Tortugas announced $106 million in seed and Series A financings. The funds will support ongoing research and development initiatives, including the completion of phase 2 clinical trials for its two lead candidates. The clinical stage pipeline includes potential treatments for schizophrenia, tinnitus, focal epilepsy, reversible encephalopathies, and other high, unmet need central nervous system indications. The programs feature small molecule new chemical entities with derisked mechanisms of action. Tortugas intends for these molecules to be once-daily, oral formulations with differentiated pharmacological profiles, that also afford indication expansion possibilities.

$100M: Series B for Novel Small Molecule Cardiometabolic Pipeline 

Ambrosia Biosciences announced a $100 million oversubscribed Series B financing. The financing provides $100 million in committed capital, intended to fund the company through clinical trial initiation of its oral small molecule GLP-1. Proceeds from the financing will support advancement of the company's novel oral small molecule GLP-1 into a phase 1 clinical trial and continued development of the company's other small molecule programs, including GIP and amylin. 

$80M: Series D for Ophthalmological Therapy  

Life Biosciences closed a fully subscribed $80 million Series D financing. The proceeds will support the company’s operations into the second half of 2027, including the completion of its recently initiated phase 1 clinical trial of ER-100 and the continued advancement of its broader Partial Epigenetic Reprogramming (PER) platform across multiple therapeutic indications. Life Bio’s phase 1 clinical trial (NCT07290244) will assess the safety and tolerability of ER-100 in patients with open-angle glaucoma (OAG) and non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION). The trial will also evaluate efficacy measures, including multiple assessments of visual function. 

$75M: Series C for ADC Advancement 

Adcendo announced the successful closing of an oversubscribed $75 million Series C financing round. Proceeds from the fundraise will be used to support Adcendo through multiple upcoming key clinical milestones from the company's first- and best-in-class ADC pipeline, including the ADCE-T02 (Tissue Factor ADC) phase 1 Tiffany-01 Cohort expansion study in multiple high unmet need tumor indications, the ADCE-D01 (uPARAP) ADCElerate1 dose escalation and expansion study in soft tissue sarcoma and other cancers of mesenchymal origin, and the ADCE-B05 (undisclosed target) dose escalation study in squamous cell carcinomas. 

$56M: Series C for Sarcoma Inhibitor 

STORM Therapeutics announced a successful $56 million Series C financing. The proceeds will support the advancement of STC-15, a first‑in‑class, oral small-molecule inhibitor of METTL3, including funding the company’s phase 2 monotherapy study in selected sarcoma indications, in which the first patient has now been successfully dosed. Sarcoma is a form of cancer that arises in bone or soft tissues, including muscle, fat, cartilage, blood vessels, and other connective or supportive tissue. This study is designed to support a potential accelerated regulatory approval pathway for STC-15 and to establish a foundation for subsequent clinical development across additional oncology indications. 

$54M: Series A for RNA Therapeutics 

Vivatides Therapeutics announced the successful closing of an oversubscribed $54 million Series A financing. Proceeds from the financing will be used to further advance Vivatides' extrahepatic delivery platform, accelerate multiple pipeline programs into clinical development, and expand its global team and R&D network. RNA therapeutics, with their broad target space, high specificity, and durable efficacy, are poised to become the third major therapeutic modality following small molecules and antibodies. With advances in extrahepatic delivery technologies, RNA therapeutics are rapidly expanding beyond rare diseases into large, chronic disease areas such as hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and oncology, unlocking substantial market potential. 

$40M: Series E for Antibodies, Genetic Medicines, Cell Therapies

Alloy announced a $40 million Series E financing round, which will be used to accelerate growth across three priorities: deepening its core discovery service in antibodies, genetic medicines, and cell therapies; expanding its downstream preclinical and clinical development services; and accelerating its AI/ML and data layer that connects it all. The future of drug development belongs to capital-efficient builders: virtual biotechs and lean development teams that need world-class infrastructure without owning it. Alloy is that platform: connecting proprietary AI, real-world data, and wet lab execution through on-demand services that federate and protect partner data at every step.

$27M: Series B for Inner Ear Disease Treatments 

Spiral Therapeutics closed its $27 million Series B financing. Proceeds will go into Spiral’s pipeline of programs targeting diseases of the inner ear. Its lead program, SPT-2101, delivered a statistically significant reduction of overall vertigo in patients with Ménière's disease, and the company is preparing for a registrational clinical trial. Spiral's minimally invasive cochlear system drug delivery platform underpins a broader portfolio of hearing loss programs, including neurotrophic approaches designed to target fundamental disease pathobiology. 

$10M: Seed Financing for AI-Driven Discovery of Hidden Cancer Targets 

RyboDyn announced the initial closing of a $10 million seed financing. The financing will accelerate the company's transition from foundational discovery into scaled platform execution and progress early-stage programs into IND-enabling studies. The company's proprietary discovery engine RyboCypher combines deep sequencing of non-canonical RNAs with proteomic detection to identify disease-specific, druggable targets directly from patient tumors. These data are continuously integrated into CypherAtlas, creating a proprietary, searchable atlas that powers foundational AI models to decode the dark proteome at scale. 

$8.5M: Series A for Hard-To-Heal Wounds 

Omeza closed an $8.5 million Series A financing. Proceeds will be used to accelerate clinical trials, expand commercial capabilities, and strengthen the company’s clinical and real-world evidence base to support broader reimbursement coverage. Omeza’s lead product OCM reduces inflammation, disrupts bacterial biofilm, and supports tissue regeneration, offering a highly effective and cost-efficient alternative to traditional skin grafts. 

$5M: Financing for Cardiovascular Data Lake

PlaqueTec has raised a $5 million financing. The investment will support the continued build-out of PlaqueTec's proprietary cardiovascular data lake, BioCarta, a growing repository of unique intracoronary proteomic and clinical data. BioCarta will provide a novel site-of-disease strategy to inform how inflammatory risk in CVD is stratified and targeted, providing more accurate assessments of disease than current approaches and better informing targeted therapeutic interventions with potential to transform outcomes for patients.

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