Today we are announcing Loyal’s $45M Series B. Thank you, Wall Street Journal, for the excellent piece. This round brings Loyal’s total financing to over $125M.
I started Loyal four and a half years ago as a naive 24 year old with an idea that literally had people laugh in my face — FDA-approved dog lifespan extension drugs. Since then, Loyal has created the first regulatory path for a lifespan extension drug, earned FDA acceptance of the effectiveness dossier for LOY-001, been on the cover of WIRED, and dosed the first dog in our pivotal lifespan extension study. I am so proud of the precedent we have set and the scientific rigor we have brought to an extremely challenging and important problem.
Our $45M Series B was led by Bain Capital Ventures, a new investor in the company who brings growth and consumer expertise. We welcomed Valor Equity Partners (Jon Shulkin) as a new investor. And Khosla Ventures (Vinod Khosla), First Round Capital (Josh Kopelman), Box Group (Greg Rosen), Quiet Capital (David Greenbaum + Daniel Gruneberg), Collaborative Fund (Craig Shapiro), and Todd & Rahul, doubled or tripled down on their previous investments in the company. The round was near 2X oversubscribed and at a significant markup to our 2021 Series A.1
This new capital fuels us to very hopefully2 bring the first FDA-approved lifespan extension drug to market. We have the data, the team, and the path forward — this capital was the last puzzle piece to ensure that, if our vision is possible, we will achieve it.
Funding from this round will help us reach future milestones:
- FDA manufacturing, safety, and reasonable expectation of efficacy (RXE) dossier approval for LOY-002, our product for senior dog lifespan extension
- Market launch of our first product, and build out of our distribution and commercial functions for nationwide supply
- Complete enrollment in and execution of our STAY pivotal lifespan extension study for LOY-002
- Continued development of LOY-001 (injectable) and LOY-003 (daily pill) for large dog lifespan extension, including LOY-003 RXE submission and final commercial formulation
Building dog longevity drugs does not have a large margin for error, and I rely on our investors to ensure we continuously level up. I appreciate so much the continued belief of incumbent investors including Greg Rosen (who convinced me to start Loyal back in 2019), Josh Kopelman (my growth rate barometer), and Vinod Khosla (whose plans are measured in centuries). I admire both the rigor and leap of faith required of new investors Kevin Zhang and Jon Shulkin — including brainstorming sessions over Adeni chai (Kevin) and cider (Jon).
It is the honor of a lifetime to build Loyal with this team of scientists, veterinarians, creatives, operators, animal lovers, and investors. We are committed to delivering our dog longevity drugs to patients and veterinarians, and with it building a new pharmaceutical company focused on the biology of aging and healthy lifespan extension.
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1Even high interest rates can’t stop dog longevity drugs.
2While I am a trained scientist, I am also deeply superstitious and you will not catch me mentioning FDA approval without many caveats 🙂
