Kanvas Biosciences raises $12.5M in a new funding round

Kanvas Biosciences, a full-stack spatial biology company, has raised $12.5 million in additional funding. This brings Kanvas's total funding to $29.5 million.

According to the company, the funding will be used to develop the company's spatial biology platform and advance two novel therapeutics in its Immuno-oncology Program, KAN-001 and KAN-003 — KAN-001 to an Investigational New Drug (IND) filing in 2025.

"We have a remarkable opportunity to help patients by offering them an effective, novel therapeutic approach to some of the most common and debilitating conditions, starting with improving the efficacy of immunotherapy in the treatment of solid organ cancer. I'm so proud of the extraordinary progress the Kanvas team has already achieved," said Matthew Cheng, co-founder and CEO of Kanvas Biosciences.

He further added, "because of this progress and with additional capital, Kanvas is positioned to accelerate its growth and build on its early success in illuminating host-microbiome interactions by launching a clinical pipeline of precision microbiome therapeutics."

KAN-001, the company’s lead drug candidate, is an LBP demonstrating significant potential to improve outcomes for cancer patients who have been resistant to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). Designed with the goal of increasing the percentage of patients who respond to ICIs across all ICI-approved cancer types, KAN-003 will be a defined consortium for cancer patients, administered just before starting ICI treatment.

Additionally, Kanvas Biosciences is collaborating with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and its Platform for Innovative Microbiome and Translational Research (PRIME-TR) to conduct additional preclinical studies for KAN-001 to optimize the drug’s formulation and prepare it for an IND filing in 2025, preparatory to recruiting the first patients for a clinical trial the same year.

The fresh round of funding adds to the already massive year for Kanvas Biosciences. This fall, the company opened a new research laboratory and drug manufacturing facility in South San Francisco. Kanvas also recently expanded its leadership team: Lee Swem, formerly Federation Bio's Chief Science Officer, joined Kanvas as Chief Development Officer, Steve Kujawa, who previously led business development at 10x Genomics, joined as Vice President of Business Development, and Kevin Cutler joined the company as Lead Scientist with expertise in AI.