Beacon Therapeutics raises $170 million in a Series B financing

UK life science incubator Syncona says it has committed $42.5 million (£33.5 million) to a $170 million (£134 million) Series B financing of its portfolio company Beacon Therapeutics, an ophthalmic gene therapy company with a purpose to save and restore the vision of patients with blinding retinal diseases.

Forbion led the round and, alongside Syncona, the financing was supported by existing investors Oxford Science Enterprises and the University of Oxford, and new investors TCGX and Advent Life Sciences.

Syncona launched Beacon in 2023, cornerstoning a Series A financing. Beacon was created to pursue an opportunity Syncona identified to apply its domain knowledge in retinal disease to a late-stage clinical asset through the acquisition of AGTC in 2022, which it complemented with a pipeline of pre-clinical programs to build a leading retinal gene therapy company.