SoftBank has invested $1.1 billion in equity in a biotech startup Roivant Sciences, founded by Indian-origin entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. This funding comes from SoftBank Vision fund, according to a report by TechCrunch.
Roivant Sciences is a three-year-old, Switzerland-based biotech startup, which develops and commercializes therapies by creating subsidiaries, all of which involve the word ‘vant’.
Since inception, its subsidiaries include Axovant Sciences, which is focused on neurology; Myovant Sciences, which is focused on women’s health and endocrine diseases; Dermavant Sciences, which is focused on dermatology; Enzyvant Sciences, which is focused on rare diseases; and Urovant Sciences, focused on urology.
TechCrunch reports that Roivant also is creating a new tech-focused subsidiary for the first time, called Datavant, an AI-driven initiative that plans to unlock insights in healthcare data sets by improving the design of clinical trials, creating virtual trials between similar drugs using pooled placebo groups, and developing new molecular targets to pursue for any given drug.
To form Axiovant, Vivek acquired an Alzheimer’s pill from GlaxoSmithKline and is currently awaiting Phase 3 results from that pill, now called intepirdine.
Roivant took the company public in 2015, and it was the biggest biotech IPO of the year, raising $360 million. (Its shares, which opened at $15, currently trade at $23.
It also look its other subsidiaries Myovant Sciences public in 2016.
This Switzerland-based startup aims to become a giant holding company for dozens of independent
Roivant earlier raised funds from the hedge fund QVT Financial in New York, where Ramaswamy once worked, and Dexcel Pharma, an Israeli firm.
SoftBank Vision Fund most recent investment was in India’s largest ecommerce firm Flipkart on Thursday.