Funding profile · Kidney gene therapy

Nephrogen

One Form D on EDGAR names Nephrogen, and Nephrogen did not file it. The money that has actually reached the bench so far is a federal grant and a pitch prize.

$2.0MPre-seed reported closed, ZAKA VC named (Nov 2025)
$325KNIH STTR Phase I on record, Sep 2023 to Aug 2025
$309KSold by the one Form D that names the company, 11 investors
$200K2048 Ventures pitch competition grand prize, 2023

Data as of September 22, 2026. Company-reported figures are labeled.

Rounds at a glance

When Round Amount Investors Source
2020 Y Combinator, Summer 2020 batch Not disclosed Y Combinator YC listing
Announced Jul 2023 2048 Ventures Spring biotech pitch competition, grand prize $200,000 2048 Ventures Investor blog
Sep 2023 to Aug 2025 NIH STTR Phase I, 1R41DK138689-01 $325,000 NIDDK NIH
Undated Non-dilutive pharmaceutical funding Not disclosed Seven companies claimed, including Merck KGaA, Novartis, Bristol Myers Squibb Company-stated
Jul 2025 SPV: Allometric Nephrogen Seed Jun 2025, a Series of CGF2021 LLC $309,000 11 investors; administered by Sydecar Form D
Reported 2025 Pre-seed $2,000,000 ZAKA VC named; others not disclosed Trade press
Open, Oct 2025 Seed $4,000,000 target None announced Company-stated

What the filings show

Allometric Nephrogen Seed Jun 2025 a Series of CGF2021 LLC · Form D · filed Jul 16, 2025

First sale
Jul 1, 2025
Type
Pooled investment fund, single company vehicle, Delaware, formed 2025
Offered
$309,000
Sold
$309,000 · $0 remaining
Investors
11 · average about $28,091
Minimum
$0 stated; no non-accredited investors
Exemptions
Rule 506(b); Investment Company Act 3(c)(1)
To officers
$5,562 of proceeds, about 1.8 percent
Related persons
Sydecar LLC (administrator of the issuer); Brett Sagan (officer of the administrator)
Filing
SEC EDGAR, CIK 0002077358

Reading the filings

  1. Nephrogen itself has never filed a Form D.A full text search of EDGAR returns four documents: this syndicate vehicle, and three from an unrelated issuer. Nephrogen has no CIK of its own. Companies that raise under Section 4(a)(2) rather than Regulation D file no Form D, so the absence is not evidence that no money moved. It does mean the equity story here is reconstructed from press accounts, not filings.
  2. The syndicate is small and the checks are angel sized.$309,000 divided by 11 investors is about $28,091 each, individuals rather than a fund taking a position. It covers about 15 percent of the $2.0 million reported closed. The rest left no public trace.
  3. The vehicle and the press disagree about which round this is.The filer named itself for a seed in June 2025 and recorded a first sale on July 1, 2025. The trade press four months later called it a closed pre-seed. No amended filing reconciles the two.
  4. Non-dilutive money has carried the science.$525,000 is documented from a federal grant and a pitch prize, against $309,000 of equity visible in any filing. The NIH award ended August 31, 2025 with no Phase II on record, removing the largest confirmed funding line.
  5. Total raised figures do not agree.CB Insights lists $700,000 raised and a 2015 founding. Trade coverage reports $2.0 million and Y Combinator lists 2022. Both totals exclude the grant and the prize.
  6. The pharma funding claim is the largest unverified line item.Seven pharmaceutical companies are named or implied as sources of non-dilutive funding. No amount, agreement or partner confirmation was found in any public record, and the founder separately told an interviewer the company collaborates with six.

Commercial signals

Signal Detail Source type
Regulatory No FDA clearance, approval, IND disclosure, orphan drug designation or rare pediatric disease designation found as of Sep 22, 2026. Not found
Clinical No registered studies. ClinicalTrials.gov returns zero for the company. Guidance is 2027. Public record
Evidence One peer reviewed paper, a CRISPR design tool in Genome Biology, May 2026. One AAV kidney delivery preprint, Oct 2025, not yet refereed. Public record
Customers or revenue None. Preclinical platform company with no product. Not found
Recognition Runner up in Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt, Oct 29, 2025. Independent
Headcount 5, per the Y Combinator listing. Company-stated

What to watch

  • A Form D filed by Nephrogen for the $4 million seed, due within 15 days of a first sale if the round runs under Regulation D.
  • A second syndicate vehicle, signalling the angel channel is being reused.
  • Whether ZAKA VC’s investment ever appears in a filing, in any jurisdiction.
  • A Phase II STTR award, or any new federal grant after the August 2025 end date.
  • A named pharmaceutical agreement, confirmed by the partner rather than by the company.

The Nephrogen story on Healthcare DiscoveryHealthcare Discovery

Related companies

  • Excepgen: Shared investor: Zaka Vc. A San Francisco biotech that started by engineering human cells to make hard to express proteins for drug discovery, and has since turned to a different problem
  • Alixia: Shared investor: Zaka Vc. A San Francisco drug discovery company that treats a tumor as an ecosystem rather than as a single mutation
  • Sensible Biotechnologies: Shared investor: Zaka Vc. A platform that grows therapeutic mRNA inside engineered cells instead of making it in a tube
  • Avelis Health: Shared investor: Zaka Vc. A Y Combinator startup that started by fighting patients’ medical bills, then pivoted to auditing every claim for self-insured employers before the money moves

Sources

  1. Public recordForm D, Allometric Nephrogen Seed Jun 2025 a Series of CGF2021 LLC, CIK 0002077358SEC · Jul 16, 2025
  2. Public recordNIH RePORTER 1R41DK138689-01NIDDK · FY2023
  3. Public recordClinicalTrials.gov query for Nephrogen, zero studiesQueried Sep 22, 2026
  4. Public recordDesigning genome editing experiments with EditABLE, PMID 42108472Genome Biology · May 11, 2026
  5. Public recordIntegrated AAV optimization enables efficient gene delivery to kidney, PMID 41282112Research Square · Oct 24, 2025
  6. IndependentZAKA VC backs Nephrogen’s kidney-focused gene therapy platformITKeyMedia · Nov 28, 2025
  7. IndependentBiotech Nephrogen combines AI and gene therapy to reverse kidney diseaseTechCrunch · Oct 27, 2025
  8. IndependentAnd the winner of Startup Battlefield at Disrupt 2025 is: GlidTechCrunch · Oct 29, 2025
  9. IndependentNephrogen company profile, total raised and founding yearCB Insights · accessed Sep 22, 2026
  10. CompanyNephrogen company listing, team size and pharma funding claimY Combinator · accessed Sep 22, 2026

Compiled from SEC, NIH, ClinicalTrials.gov and other public records and published reports as of September 22, 2026. Form D notices report offerings under Regulation D; amounts reflect the filing date and may not capture later sales. Healthcare Venture Capital Fund holds no position in Nephrogen. This page is not an offer to sell or a recommendation to buy any security.