Kardigan, a biotechnology company focused on redefining cardiovascular drug development, announced the successful closing of a $254 million Series B financing round. The funding round featured participation from new investors, including Fidelity Management & Research Company and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Investment Management, alongside renewed support from long-time backers ARCH Venture Partners and Sequoia Heritage.
The funding will advance the company's late-stage clinical programs targeting specific forms of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), calcific aortic valve stenosis (CAVS), and acute severe hypertension (ASH): three life-threatening conditions that currently lack effective treatments. The funding reinforces Kardigan's strategic roadmap as it advances toward multiple data readouts beginning in 2026, positioning the company to play a defining role in the next generation of cardiovascular therapeutics.
Addressing Critical Unmet Medical Needs
For decades, cardiovascular disease has been the number one cause of death worldwide. In the U.S. alone, it claims more lives than all cancers and accidents combined. Despite this, conventional approaches to drug development, intermittent industry focus, and limited investment have resulted in incremental therapeutic advancements with minimal improvement in patient outcomes overall.
"To create meaningful change for patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases, we need to think differently about how we develop new drugs," said Tassos Gianakakos, co-founder, chief executive officer, and chair of Kardigan. "At Kardigan, we are uniting real-world patient data, AI insights and deep cardiovascular expertise to advance therapies with the potential to transform outcomes."
Three-Pronged Pipeline Strategy
Kardigan's approach is built on the principle of "cardiac intelligence"—using advanced data science and precision medicine to understand the biological roots of cardiovascular disease. By combining molecular insights with cutting-edge clinical research, the company aims to move beyond symptom management and deliver functional cures for patients.
The company's three leading programs represent distinct and complementary strategies for addressing key cardiovascular diseases:
Danicamtiv – A cardiac myosin activator designed to treat genetic DCM caused by sarcomeric variants. DCM is a cardiac muscle disorder that carries significant risk of disease progression to advanced stages of heart failure. Despite the availability of treatments to address symptoms, there are no therapies that specifically reduce or reverse the progression of DCM pathophysiology. Kardigan in-licensed exclusive worldwide development and commercialization rights to danicamtiv, an investigational drug discovered at MyoKardia and further developed by Bristol Myers Squibb.
Tonlamarsen – An angiotensinogen-targeted bridging therapy expected to interrupt the pathological cycle of ASH. ASH is a sudden and severe spike in blood pressure requiring immediate attention to prevent heart attack, stroke or damage to other organs. While many patients who develop ASH have underlying chronic hypertension, the near-term risk associated with this acute event is underappreciated and rarely studied as a disease condition. There are currently no treatments indicated for ASH. Kardigan in-licensed exclusive worldwide development and commercialization rights to tonlamarsen, an investigational drug discovered and developed by Ionis.
Ataciguat – A once-daily, oral soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) activator positioned as a potential first-in-class treatment for CAVS and a therapeutic alternative to "watchful waiting." Calcium buildup on the aortic valve is the leading cause of aortic stenosis in adults in the U.S. and EU. There is a critical unmet need for treatment that can mitigate valve replacement surgery, a challenge compounded by limited understanding of the biology driving valvular calcification. Kardigan acquired rights to ataciguat, an investigational drug developed by, and in-licensed from, Sanofi and Mayo Clinic.
Precision Medicine Approach
Each program embodies Kardigan's commitment to tackling cardiovascular diseases at their biological source, rather than managing the downstream symptoms that often lead to lifelong treatment dependence. The company's pipeline underscores a broader shift toward precision-based cardiology, emphasizing individualized therapies guided by genetic and molecular data.
"Our portfolio has been carefully designed to align with Kardigan's criteria for developing synergistic therapies that target critical disease drivers, in each case with the potential to move beyond symptom management to functional cures," said Jay Edelberg, M.D., Ph.D., co-founder and chief medical officer. "With ample opportunity for learning across programs, we believe Kardigan's cardiac intelligence platform will drive effective patient segmentation, streamline clinical trials and ultimately deliver novel therapies to patients who have the potential to benefit most."
Strategic Development Model
The Series B funding will support ongoing and planned clinical trials across all three programs while scaling the company's development capabilities and operational infrastructure. By advancing these candidates simultaneously, Kardigan seeks to deliver multiple medicines in parallel—a departure from traditional, sequential drug development models.
Supported by the integration of Prolaio's AI and real-world data platform, Kardigan is enhancing its ability to generate insights that can inform trial design and potentially reduce the time and cost to develop meaningful new medicines. Collectively, the programs create opportunities to generate new clinical insights and data that will fuel Kardigan's ongoing R&D and discovery efforts beyond these three disease areas.
Founded on the belief that heart disease can become preventable and curable, Kardigan's leadership team combines deep scientific expertise with a capital-efficient model designed to advance discovery and development. The company's headquarters in South San Francisco and Princeton, New Jersey, serve as innovation hubs for its integrated research and data platforms.
"The support of our new and existing investors affirms the strength of Kardigan's differentiated scientific strategy and bold vision to make cardiovascular disease preventable, curable, and no longer the leading cause of death in the world," the company stated. "We are building a different, capital-efficient company powered by science, data, and technology. With cardiac intelligence, Kardigan is advancing an unparalleled understanding of the heart, redefining the model for therapeutic innovation — one designed to address cardiovascular diseases at their source rather than just manage symptoms."
