Engrail Therapeutics closes oversubscribed $157 million Series B financing

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Vikram Sudarsan, Ph.D., president and CEO of Engrail Therapeutics


Engrail Therapeutics, a precision neuroscience company, announced the closure of an oversubscribed $157 million Series B financing round.


The round was co-led by new investors F-Prime Capital, Forbion, and Norwest Venture Partners, with participation from Eight Roads Ventures, RiverVest Venture Partners, Red Tree Venture Capital, funds managed by Abrdn Inc., Ysios Capital, Longwood Fund, and existing founding investor Pivotal Life Sciences. Since its inception in 2019, the company has raised over $220 million.


Engrail was founded in 2019 by Vikram Sudarsan, PhD, and Stephen Cunningham, MD, with the aspiration to become a leader in neuroscience. Today, the Engrail team is primarily based in the US, with team members in India and Europe.

Funding from the Series B round will propel the advancement of the company’s pipeline through multiple stages of clinical development. The company is developing therapies for the treatment of diseases with significant unmet medical needs, including anxiety disorders, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and rare neurodegenerative diseases.


“With strong financial backing from highly sophisticated and dedicated life science investors, we are well-positioned to deliver multiple value-creating milestones. Notably, we look forward to completing our ongoing ENX-102 phase 2 study in generalized anxiety disorder and advancing the rest of our pipeline into clinical development,” said Vikram Sudarsan, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of Engrail Therapeutics.


Sudarsan is a former executive at Cipla, one of the largest pharmaceutical manufacturers in India. He was notably the Chief Executive Officer of Cipla Technologies, where he built a pipeline of branded products to treat central nervous system disorders and respiratory diseases. Prior to that, Sudarsan was Head of Strategy at Cipla New Ventures. He has served on the boards of Stempeutics, Chase Pharmaceuticals, Cipla Technologies, and Cipla USA.


Peter Bisgaard, Chairman of Engrail’s Board of Directors and Managing Director at Pivotal Life Sciences, added, “We are proud to have started Engrail, which has progressed rapidly from an idea into a clinical-stage neuroscience company within just a few years. We have assembled a strong Series B syndicate that positions the organisation well for significant growth and pipeline advancement.”

First Published: Mar 19 2024 | 6:52 PM IST