Sands Capital, Northpond Ventures Join $41.5 Million Series B for Elephas Biosciences

Andrea Jackson

Sands Capital and Northpond Ventures have joined a $41.5 million Series B round for Elephas Biosciences Corp., a Madison, Wis.-based firm developing a platform to predict efficacy of cancer treatment.

The round was led by ARCH Venture Partners, and included existing investor WARF Ventures. New investors included Moore Strategic Ventures and Tao Capital Partners. Elephas has so far raised $69.5 million.

“We believe Elephas’ platform could be critical in improving [an] individual’s cancer journey by streamlining the treatment decision-making process for clinicians,” said Andrea Jackson, director of Northpond Ventures, adding that improving outcomes for cancer patients is a “must.”

Key Tests Ahead

Elephas is building technology that can identify the efficacy of cancer treatments even before a patient is administered any therapy. It does this by testing the drugs on live tumor biopsies taken from patients. In May, the company licensed two patents — governing advanced imaging to aid the diagnosis and detection of cancer — from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), the independent technology transfer organization of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The company is due to start two human clinical trials to test its platform. Elephas expects to share initial clinical data in 2023, when it also plans to open its platform’s access to other biopharma researchers.

CEO with Cancer Creds

Elephas is led by CEO Maneesh Arora, who earned a BA in economics from the University of Chicago and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. He has had notable stints at startups developing cancer therapies. Prior to starting Elephas, Arora helmed Farcast Biosciences, a diagnostics company focused on improving outcomes of cancer treatments; and served as chief operating officer of Exact Sciences Corp., which focuses on early detection and prevention of colon cancer.

Northpond Among Top 3 in Biotech

Northpond, with offices in Bethesda, Md., is a four-year-old venture fund predominantly investing in life sciences startups. It was cofounded by CEO Michael Rubin and partner Sharon Kedar, both of whom previously were associated with Sands Capital. In 2021, Crunchbase ranked Northpond, which has offices in Cambridge, Mass., and San Francisco, among the three most active biotech investors in the country. Silicon Valley Bank rated it the most active lead investor in life science solutions and molecular diagnostics.

Rubin previously cofounded Sands Capital Ventures, a global cross-industry venture capital business and affiliate of Sands Capital Management. He is a board-certified physician and surgeon, completing his fellowship training at Harvard Medical School. Rubin also holds an MBA from University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from University of California, Los Angeles.

Previously, Kedar was the CFO of Sands Capital Management. Earlier in her career, she was a consultant at McKinsey & Company. Kedar has an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a B.A. in economics from Rice University.

Pulse Strategy

Founded in 1992, Sands Capital has raised a total of $2.1 billion across eight funds. The firm has made over 100 portfolio investments and over 30 exits. Its most recent fund was Sands Capital Life Sciences Pulse Fund II, which raised $560 million in 2021. Close of the fund raised the firm’s so-called Pulse Strategy assets under management to more than $950 million, including Sands Capital Life Sciences Pulse Fund, L.P. and related vehicles.

Sands Capital’s most recent investments include Cleeerly, Inspirna, Papercup, LimaCharlie, Redbud Brands, Credo AI, SeLux Diagnostics, Red Sift, Speech Graphics, Day Zero Diagnostics and Codoxo. Its most notable exits include DoorDash, Funding Circle and Anaplan.