Capstan Therapeutics was founded by Christian Homsy, a serial entrepreneur. Christian teamed up with Capstan Co-founders Carl June & Bruce Levine from the University of Pennsylvania. Previous research from Carl and Bruce led to the first CAR-T therapy Kymriah approved in 2017. Talentmark was chosen to work with the founders from a very early stage to help determine what composition was required to bring the right strengths and insight to the Board. In particular, the search partner required deep experience in cell and gene therapy innovation. This led to a successful Board appointment who brought scientific and development experience . Working closely with Christian we determined what was required from an Executive team. Talentmark executed successful global searches for the Chief Scientific Officer, Chief Technology Officer.
It was now time to raise the series A and Talentmark introduced Christian to the cornerstone investor, Novartis Ventures, who led the round that totalled $165m. Talentmark were also engaged to find the Vice President of Intellectual Property, Head of Translational Medicine and Head of Bioinformatics.