BOSTON, MA, SpringLeaf Therapeutics today announced a second closing of its Series B financing. The company has secured an additional $4 million from new investor Excel Venture Management, bringing the total round to $19 million. Excel Venture Management joins prior investors SR One, Flybridge Capital Partners, and North Bridge Venture Partners.

SpringLeaf's technology is designed to expand availability of biologic therapeutics by meeting specific patient needs and enabling self-administration, which may significantly lower treatment costs and improve outcomes. In conjunction with the financing, Enrico Petrillo, M.D., Managing Director at Excel Venture Management, will join SpringLeaf's board of directors as an observer.

"SpringLeaf has developed a transformative technology that enables new and existing biologics for a patient population previously unable to realize the benefits of these therapeutics," said Dr. Petrillo. "This technology will expand patient access both nationally and internationally as the field of biologics continues to grow. Excel Venture Management is excited to partner with SpringLeaf and founders Michael Cima, Yet-Ming Chiang and Richard Gyory, three leaders in the field who continue to pioneer innovations in technology that benefit society and create partnership opportunities. Excel believes in the convergent approach, exemplified by SpringLeaf, in which materials and life sciences come together to create true positive impact on patients and the healthcare system."

"Excel Venture Management has a track record of seeking out cutting edge technology with tangible commercial opportunity, and we are gratified to have their support for our patient-centric biotherapeutic platform," said Frank Bobe, Ph.D., President and CEO of SpringLeaf Therapeutics. "These additional resources will help SpringLeaf create differentiated biotherapeutic modalities for more effective, better tolerated and cost-efficient patient treatment."

Many promising biotherapeutics that, at present, face challenges for successful development or commercialization may be enabled and differentiated by SpringLeaf's technology:

Viscous drugs: SpringLeaf's therapies incorporate the Company's powerful, internally driven morphing surface, which generates a considerable amount of force in a small package to deliver highly viscous biopharmaceuticals and other drugs.
Large volume biopharmaceuticals: The SpringLeaf system has a simple, elegant power source-which doubles as the actual delivery mechanism-creating a highly compact system capable of subcutaneously delivering large drug volumes (above one milliliter) that pose a challenge to current technologies.
Patient-administered treatments: SpringLeaf's prefilled therapeutic allows patients to self-administer treatment at home, which should reduce the need for complicated and expensive delivery systems, multiple injections and/or visits to an outpatient center. SpringLeaf intends to develop therapeutic products that provide an unprecedented level of convenience and control, increasing patient acceptance and adherence.

About Excel Venture Management
Excel Venture Management builds companies that apply transformative life science technologies to solve problems in healthcare and beyond. The Excel investment portfolio is balanced across healthcare IT and services, diagnostics, and medical devices, plus life science platforms that address adjacent markets including energy, chemicals, defense and agriculture. The majority of the team's prior investments, which include some of the world's premier healthcare and life science companies, are thriving and over half have achieved successful exits generating billions in value.

About SpringLeaf Therapeutics
SpringLeaf Therapeutics is creating innovative therapeutic modalities to address serious disease and elevate the quality of care for patients. SpringLeaf's technology is based on the convergence of materials science and medicine and is designed to enable and differentiate therapeutics. SpringLeaf was founded based on breakthrough science at MIT and is backed by leading investors including SR One, Flybridge Capital Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners.