Arpeggio Biosciences Raises $17 Million in Series A Funding Led by Builders VC

• New capital will support ongoing development of their drug pipeline targeting transcriptional mechanisms in disease
• Arpeggio’s technology isolates a drug’s effect on entire transcriptomes and has identified new modulators of hard-to-drug proteins like transcription factors
• To date, Arpeggio has contracted with more than 40 pharmaceutical companies to assess the impact of diverse classes of molecules on cellular transcription

BOULDER, Colo. & SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Arpeggio Biosciences, a preclinical therapeutics company whose technology targets transcriptional dysregulation in disease, and Builders VC, today announced a $17 million dollar Series A funding round, following a $3.2 million dollar seed round completed in 2020. Funding was led by Builders VC and will support ongoing development of Arpeggio’s drug pipeline as well as its transcription-monitoring technologies.

“This Series A funding will enable us to continue our mission of discovering new therapies for diseases arising through dysregulation of transcription,” said Joey Azofeifa, Ph.D., Founder and CEO, Arpeggio. “Our platform screens drug libraries for their effect on thousands of gene and non-coding transcripts, allowing for the first time, the design of molecules to modulate not just a single target, but a cell’s entire transcriptome.”

“By building technology capable of screening hundreds of thousands of compounds, we feel well-positioned to discover novel modulators of high value targets considered ‘undruggable’ such as transcription factors,” Azofeifa continued.

Arpeggio’s technology reads out on transcription directly and can monitor the activity of more than 100,000 transcripts across diseased and healthy cells exposed to diverse stimuli such as small molecules, biologics, or ASOs. Using machine learning, Arpeggio reconstructs the biological networks affected by the molecule and matches the molecule to diseases where the compound could be therapeutically relevant.

“Healthcare is primed to benefit from a disrupting system like Arpeggio’s, which has so much potential to help further our understanding of how drugs interact with each individual taking them,” said Amit Mehta, MD, General Partner of Builders VC. “We believe Arpeggio has the vision to transform the way we approach drug and therapy development.”

This Series A funding was also supported by Arpeggio’s seed round investors: Khosla Ventures, TechU Ventures, FundersClub, Alice Zhang, and Fifty Years, with new participation from Tencent, ATEM Capital, Formic Ventures, Tau Ventures, Milad Alucozai (BoxOne Ventures), and Matthew De Silva (Longtail Capital).

About Arpeggio Bio

Established in 2018, Arpeggio’s proprietary platform – developed by co-founders and Chief Executive Officer Joey Azofeifa, Chief Technology Officer Tim Read, and Chief Operating Officer Laura Norris – has built the largest database of nascent-RNA sequences in the world. Arpeggio’s technology combines a proprietary biological assay and machine learning algorithms that, together, enable rapid, high-resolution snapshots of cellular dynamics following drug treatment. These snapshots are then analyzed to reveal the biological networks that determine a drug’s function and guide therapeutic development. To learn more, visit https://www.arpeggiobio.com/

About Builders VC

Builders VC is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing where technology meets new business models to modernize antiquated industries including healthcare, agriculture, industrial, and real-estate. Visit: www.builders.vc.

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