Flagship Pioneering, one of the leading backers of life sciences startups, said Wednesday that it has secured another $618 million in financial commitments from new and longtime investors.
The new venture round — Flagship’s largest one-time infusion ever — boosts to $2.3 billion the total capital raised by the Cambridge, Mass., firm since its founding in 2000. The money is used to start and fund biotech, medical technology, and bio-agriculture businesses.
After changing its name from Flagship Ventures a year ago, this year it spun out a half dozen companies from an in-house incubator, VentureLabs. Two companies it backed, Denali Therapeutics and Quanterix (QTRX), completed initial public offerings of stock this month. Other companies in the Flagship portfolio raised a total of $835 million this year.
