Arsenal Medical, a stealthy biotech startup based in Watertown, MA, has tapped its existing base of investors to pump in another $10 million in the second installment of its Series C round of funding, R. Scott Rader, the company’s CEO, says. The financing, which was initially revealed in an SEC filing that went online yesterday, brings the firm’s third round to $18.2 million.
Investors in the latest round included North Bridge Venture Partners and Polaris Venture Partners, both of Waltham, MA, as well as Durham, NC-based Intersouth Partners, Rader says. The developer of bioactive materials has raised nearly $41 million since its launch, the CEO says. He declined to discuss the specific purpose of the latest financing.
Arsenal has generated buzz for its big-name founders, most notably Bob Langer, the MIT inventor of acclaimed drug-delivery technologies, and the standout Harvard chemist and Genzyme (NASDAQ:[[ticker:GENZ]]) co-founder George Whitesides. Jeff Carbeck, Arsenal’s co-founder and former chief technology officer, provided a few details about the firm’s technology last year. Carbeck says that Arsenal’s chairman and co-founder, Carmichael Roberts, recruited him to help build the startup. Roberts is a partner at North Bridge and a former member of Whitesides’s lab at Harvard.
Arsenal (formerly WMR Biomedical) provides additional information about its “bioactive composites” on its website. It highlights its “ElastaCore” biomaterial, which can provide some of the strength of metal while still allowing the body to absorb it. Also, the firm touts its “AxioCore” technology, which is another absorbable material that is designed to provide controlled release of drugs.
Rader says that the company might shed more light on its technology in the near future.
