The news: Seattle-based protein engineering company Cyrus Biotechnology has raised $18 million and acquired Orthogonal Biologics, a spinout from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, which is developing a COVID-19 therapeutic.

Combining forces: Cyrus has built up a software-and-screening platform to re-design natural proteins, leveraging tech spun out of the University of Washingtons Institute for Protein Design. IPDs tools to predict protein folding have been a boon to Cyrus, which was co-founded in 2015 by former IPD postdoc Lucas Nivon. The company recently inked a deal with immune biotech Selecta Biosciences worth up to $1.5 billion and has worked with more than 90 other industry partners, including pharma giant Janssen.

The new acquisition brings on board Orthogonals platform for deep mutational scanning, a method that can assess up to one million mutant versions of a protein in a single experiment. Orthogonal also adds two new protein-based therapeutics to Cyrus pipeline, including a potential COVID-19 drug.

Counteracting COVID-19: Orthogonals COVID-19 agents are built to resemble ACE2, the human protein that the COVID-19 virus uses to enter human cells. The agents are designed to act as decoys, binding to the virus and disarming it.

Why it matters: Drug companies are fast leveraging IPDs recently-released RoseTTAfold and another powerful tool to predict protein folding developed by DeepMind, AlphaFold. Plugging in different tech and drug pipelines, such as those developed by Orthogonal, promises to accelerate the development of new therapeutics. Cyrus recently brought on RoseTTAfold, building on its use of an earlier IPD tool, called Rosetta.

Cyrus has proven the power of its Rosetta-based platform as a software and services company. We are very excited to now apply those software and laboratory tools directly for Cyruss partners and in house drug discovery, said Geeta Vemuri, founder and managing partner at Agent Capital, in a statement.

The field is growing rapidly. Alphabet, for instance, in November launchedIsomorphic Labs to build off of DeepMinds protein folding research.

The backers: Investors in the new deal include OrbiMed Advisors, Trinity Ventures, Agent Capital, Yard Ventures, Washington Research Foundation (WRF), iSelect Fund, W Fund, family offices, and individual investors. Selecta Bioscience is a strategic investor in the Series B round, which brings total funding to date to $28.9 million, including $8 million in venture funding raised in 2017. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Whats next: The cash will be used to move Cyrus labs from a temporary space atAlexandria LaunchLabstoa buildingnear the Seattle waterfront that houses Universal Cells and other biotechs. Cyrus will also partner with contract research organizations for preclinical testing of the the COVID-19 agent and other therapies.

The small Orthogonal team has moved to Seattle, including COOKui K. Chanand CEOErik Procko, a University of Illinois professor of biophysics and quantitative biology, now on leave. Both are former senior fellows in the lab of David Baker, IPD head. Cyrus will continue relationships with key University of Illinois researchers, including professorsJalees RehmanandAsrar B. Malik, who are performing studies in animals. Cyrus is hiring protein biochemists and senior leadership in drug discovery, aiming to grow from 25 to 30 employees in the next six months.

By merging our company with Cyrus we can create a unified biologics discovery platform, said Procko.

More deals:

Koch Investments Group invests $100 million in Vancouver, B.C.-based Standard Lithium.Standard Lithium is testing the commercial viability of extracting lithium, a key component of electric batteries, at a 150,000-acre location in Arkansas. The company has commissioned a demonstration plant to extract the metal. It also has 45,000 acres of mineral leases in the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, Calif.

Barn2Door raises $6 million to advance software that connects farmers to customers. Seattle-based Barn2Door serves thousands of farmers across the U.S., helping them sell food directly to consumers with e-commerce software that manages sales, inventory, logistics, and more. The new funding brings total funding to $17.6 million to date, building on a $6 million round in August, 2020. The latest funding was led by Quiet Capital, with participation from existing major investors Bullpen Capital, lead Edge Capital, RAINE Ventures, Sugar Mountain Capital, as well as new investors Serra Ventures and Navigate Ventures.

Vancouver, B.C.-based Spare Labs raises $18M for mobility software. Spare Labs provides software for public transit, ride-sharing and other shared transportation. It will use the funding to enable better cooperation between different transportation providers. The Series A round was led by Inovia Capital with participation from Kensington Capital, Link VC, Ramen VC, Ridge Ventures, TransLink Capital and Japan Airlines (as JAL Innovation Fund) and Nicola Wealth, amongst others.

Editors note: This story has been updated to include Cyrus future plans.

Original post:
Funding news: Cyrus lands $18M and buys startup developing COVID-19 therapeutic; Spare Labs snags $18M for mobility software - GeekWire