Novi Technology closes $300M Series B+ for early-cancer biotech platform
What's the deal? Novi Technology, a Beijing-based clinical-stage biotech company focused on early cancer treatment, has closed a $300M Series B+ round. Kang Cheng Investment led the deal, with Xin Feng Tian Yu, Zhi Yue Investment, and Qian Yuan Feng Qiong participating.
Novi develops first-in-class drugs with fully proprietary intellectual property. It has built a nucleic acid drug development platform called STARi (Super Targeting Activated Response of Immunization) in collaboration with academician Jiang Jiandong, targeting unmet clinical needs in early-stage tumour treatment.
Why now? The round comes as China's biotech sector sees renewed investor appetite for clinical-stage oncology companies with differentiated platforms. Early intervention in cancer — catching and treating tumours before they advance — is gaining traction as a strategy that could dramatically improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.
Nucleic acid therapeutics, the technology underpinning Novi's STARi platform, have attracted growing attention globally since the success of mRNA vaccines during the pandemic, broadening investor confidence in the modality's potential beyond infectious disease.
What could go wrong? First-in-class drugs carry inherently high development risk. Novel mechanisms of action face longer regulatory review timelines and uncertain clinical outcomes. Novi must also navigate China's evolving drug approval landscape and intensifying competition from both domestic biotechs and global pharma giants expanding their oncology pipelines.
The signal: Dealroom still classifies Novi Technology as "early stage," making a $300M raise at this phase notably outsized and indicative of strong investor conviction in its anti-tumour DNA vaccine and immunotherapy platform. The round suggests that even amid a broader cooldown in Chinese biotech funding, clinical-stage companies with proprietary, first-in-class oncology assets can still attract significant capital — particularly when positioned around early intervention, a segment with fewer established competitors.
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