Vitestro Holding BV reported raising $12.7 million in series A financing round to develop the world’s first autonomous blood drawing device. This round was led by Sonder Capital Inc., alongside existing investors and new angel investors with experience in the clinical laboratory and med-tech industry. “Thanks to this fundraising, we are going to accelerate the product development, prepare EU marketing authorization, and initiate production,” Toon Overbeeke, CEO and co-founder of Vitestro, explains to BioWorld.

Flare Therapeutics Inc. raised $123 million in an oversubscribed series B round to take its lead compound, FX-909, a potentially first-in-class peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma inhibitor, into clinical trials in patients with advanced urothelial cancer and to advance additional pipeline candidates acting on other transcription factor targets with genetically validated links to disease biology.

Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered drug discovery startup Protai Bio Ltd. raised $12 million in additional seed funding, bringing the total amount to $20 million that will see the company build out an oncology drug discovery pipeline derived from its AI proteomics platform.

Health Guard Biotechnology Inc. raised ¥294 million (US$43 million) in an IPO on the SME-focused Beijing Stock Exchange, with the funds going to push the development of its HPV vaccines.

Perspectum Ltd. raised $19 million in the second close of its series C funding round bringing the total amount raised in the round to $55 million. The fundraising was led by Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., which sees the potential for long-term growth in Perspectum’s imaging and diagnostic technologies and invested $27 million.