Hexagon Bio lands $62M Series C to take novel cancer drug to the clinic
What's the deal? Hexagon Bio, a Menlo Park biopharmaceutical company, has closed a $62 million Series C financing led by The Column GroupDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. Existing backers Nextech InvestDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Deviation CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, 8VC, and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) also took part.
What's the endgame? The money will fund a first-in-human trial of HEX-360, a HER2-targeting antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), and advance Hexagon's platform for discovering new payload mechanisms. The company expects to begin a Phase 1 study in the first half of 2027.
Why now? Most approved ADCs rely on a narrow set of chemotherapy payloads, such as topoisomerase and tubulin inhibitors, which carry tolerability problems and lose effect as cancers build resistance. HEX-360 uses a novel translation inhibitor designed to suppress oncogenic protein production and work where existing payloads fail.
Preclinical data presented at the American Association for Cancer Research 2026 meeting showed HEX-360 matched or beat a comparator analogous to Enhertu at equal payload exposure, with durable responses in resistant models.
What could go wrong? Novel payloads remain an unproven, crowded bet. "This capital allows us to rapidly transition into a clinical-stage company," said co-founder and chief executive officer Maureen Hillenmeyer, but value will hinge on clinical results still years away.
The signal: Payload diversification has become a central theme in the ADC race. Novartis agreed to buy Myricx Bio for up to $1.5 billion for its payload technology, Roche's Genentech paid DualityBio $45 million upfront for platform access, and Ona Therapeutics raised $86.6 million in June. Hexagon's raise lands Hexagon squarely in that competitive field, where fresh capital is flowing to companies looking beyond chemotherapy mechanisms.
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Image credit: Hexagon Bio
