Scoop: Versant, NEA launch new biotech helmed by ex-CEO of protein degrader C4 Therapeutics

Long-time biotech venture firms Versant and New Enterprise Associates are backing a new startup run by former C4 Therapeutics chief executive Andrew Phillips.

The fledgling biotech has raised at least $30 million so far, according to paperwork filed with the SEC this week. The round could balloon to $60 million.

Phillips, who left protein degradation startup C4 in 2020 to be a managing director at Cormorant Asset Management, is running the show of the new venture as president, the SEC filing outlines. He also served as interim CEO of Cormorant-backed and Hansoh Pharmaceutical-partnered Blossom Bioscience last year.

The executive declined to comment on his new company, named Nexo Therapeutics.

Carlo Rizzuto

In the director posts are Phillips, Versant managing director Carlo Rizzuto and NEA general partner Ali Behbahani. Rizzuto also declined to comment on Nexo and didn’t answer questions about whether the biotech is following in the footsteps of C4’s protein degradation work, which came out of the lab of Jay Bradner at Dana-Farber. An NEA spokesperson didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment.

It is unclear if Phillips’ recent employer, Cormorant, is also involved in the round. Cormorant has bankrolled biotechs alongside Versant and NEA before, including protein stabilization outfit Stablix Therapeutics, of which Rizzuto took on the acting CEO role when it launched last year.

Nexo was founded this year, according to the SEC doc, and lists a UPS-affiliated store in Littleton, CO, as its address. Six investors have taken part in the round so far.

Details are scant on Nexo’s origin and its roadmap, but if its name comes from the Latin term nexus, then there’s sure to be a biotech buzzword at play: binding.

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