Funding profile · Immunology and inflammation

SFA Therapeutics

A Jenkintown, Pennsylvania biotech that has announced $8.5 million across two rounds led by named venture funds and has never filed a Form D. Here is what is on the record, and what is missing from it.

$8.5MAnnounced across the 2022 seed and the 2023 bridge
$9MTotal raised to date, company-reported (April 2025)
0Form D, Form C or Form C-AR notices on file with the SEC
$250MValuation reported by the company, March 2025

Data as of September 23, 2026. Company-reported figures are labeled.

Rounds at a glance

When Round Amount Investors Source
Before 2021 Founder money, then a first outside check Not disclosed Ira Spector and his wife; then Ben Franklin Technology Partners Founder interview
Summer 2021 Y Combinator batch Not disclosed Y Combinator YC data
Jun 20, 2022 Seed, closed $4.0M, from an original $2M target Acequia Capital and North South Ventures as co-leads; Boost VC, Ben Franklin Technology Partners, INP Capital, Savantus Ventures, Asymmetry Ventures, Reinforced Ventures Company release
Nov 9, 2023 Bridge financing $4.5M North South Ventures (lead); Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Pennsylvania, Savantus Ventures, Asymmetry Ventures Company release
2025 to 2026 Series A, open $25M target per the CEO; $35M per PitchBook None announced Figures differ

What the filings show

SFA Therapeutics, Inc. · no Regulation D or Regulation Crowdfunding notice · searched Sep 23, 2026

Registrant
None. EDGAR company search returns no registrant of this name, so there is no CIK.
Form D
None on file
Form C or C-AR
None on file
Full text hits
23 documents mention SFA Therapeutics, all filed by other issuers
What those hits are
Director biographies of Robert Dickey IV, who sits on the SFA board, filed by AIM ImmunoTech, Vyome Holdings and others
Amount announced without a notice
$8,500,000 across the 2022 seed and the 2023 bridge
Filing
SEC EDGAR company search and full text search

Reading the record

  1. The two announced rounds are almost the whole company.$4.0 million in June 2022 plus $4.5 million in November 2023 is $8.5 million. The CEO told Pulse 2.0 in April 2025: “We have raised about $9 million to-date and are raising $25 million in a syndicated Series A.” That leaves roughly half a million dollars for the founders’ own money, the first Ben Franklin check and Y Combinator combined.
  2. There is no Form D, and there should probably be one.A Regulation D offering requires a Form D within 15 days of the first sale. SFA has raised from at least eight named funds and has no EDGAR registrant at all. Either the rounds were sold under Section 4(a)(2), which carries no federal notice requirement, or the notices were not filed. Institutionally backed companies usually file, which makes the absence worth asking about.
  3. The Series A target moved by $10 million in six weeks.Technical.ly reported on March 13, 2025, citing PitchBook, that the company was in the midst of a Series A worth $35 million. On April 29, 2025 the CEO put the number at $25 million. No filing exists to settle it, and no Series A close has been announced since.
  4. The valuation is the number with the least behind it.Technical.ly reported $8.8 million raised at a $250 million valuation, roughly 28 times the capital in. The figure is company supplied, and there is no priced round on file, no revenue and no randomized trial to test it against.
  5. The bridge was inside money.Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Savantus Ventures and Asymmetry Ventures appear in both the 2022 seed and the 2023 bridge. North South Ventures co-led the seed, led the bridge, and took a board seat for managing partner David Naylor in the same announcement. A round led by an existing holder is a runway extension, not a new market price.
  6. The only SFA board seat visible in any SEC filing belongs to someone else’s CFO.Robert Dickey IV is named as an SFA Therapeutics director in AIM ImmunoTech’s proxy statement and in Vyome Holdings’ annual report. Because SFA files nothing itself, third party disclosures are where its governance surfaces.

Commercial signals

Signal Detail Source type
Revenue None. No product approved in any market. Public record
Regulatory Orphan drug designation for SFA-001 in hepatocellular carcinoma, Oct 2019. IND clearance for SFA-001N in NASH, Jan 2023. Company-stated
Clinical Phase 1b NCT05642182 declared complete by the company in Aug 2026; the registry still reads recruiting and was last updated Jan 2025. Phase 2/3 NCT06863493 registered Mar 2025, still not yet recruiting. Public record
Intellectual property Five granted US patents in this family, all assigned to Temple University, which licenses the platform to SFA. The company reports 19 issued patents worldwide and over 30 pending. Public record
Partnering The stated model is to take assets through Phase 2 and license to larger firms. No partnership or licensing deal has been announced. Company-stated
Next catalyst The company’s 2026 BIO Investment and Growth Summit listing names FDA Phase 2 Safe to Proceed, expected March 2026, and says “We are assembling a syndicate to accelerate pivotal development and strategic partnering.” Company-stated
Leadership Chairman Shawn Patrick O’Brien became CEO on Aug 19, 2026 and Ira Spector moved to chief strategy officer. The website gives Spector and Alla Arzumanyan different titles than the announcement does. Company sources differ

What to watch

  • A first Form D. Any priced Series A sold under Regulation D would trigger one within 15 days of first sale.
  • A Series A close, and whether it lands nearer $25 million or $35 million, and at what valuation.
  • Whether the Phase 2/3 trial starts. The registered estimated start date of June 1, 2025 has passed without an update.
  • A peer reviewed publication of the Phase 1b data, which is the cheapest way to support the valuation.

The SFA Therapeutics story on Healthcare DiscoveryHealthcare Discovery

Related companies

  • YourChoice Therapeutics: Shared investor: North South Ventures. A San Francisco company developing YCT-529, an oral non-hormonal male contraceptive licensed from the University of Minnesota
  • Rejuvenation Technologies: Shared investor: Asymmetry Ventures. A Stanford spinout that switches telomerase on for a day or two with modified mRNA, then lets it fade
  • Granza Bio: Shared investor: North South Ventures. A San Francisco biotech trying to turn the immune system's own cell killing machinery into a programmable drug platform
  • Catena Biosciences: Shared investor: Reinforced Ventures. A UC Berkeley spinout that uses an engineered tyrosinase to weld two proteins together through their native amino acids, now aimed at antibody drug conjugates carrying

Sources

  1. Public recordSEC EDGAR company search and full text search for SFA TherapeuticsSEC · accessed Sep 23, 2026
  2. Public recordAIM ImmunoTech Inc. proxy statement, biography of Robert Dickey IVSEC DEF 14A · Oct 29, 2025
  3. Public recordClinicalTrials.gov NCT05642182 and NCT06863493ClinicalTrials.gov · accessed Sep 23, 2026
  4. Public recordUSPTO grants 10,231,941, 11,065,217, 11,759,442, 11,963,938 and 12,622,885, assignee Temple UniversityJustia Patents listings · accessed Sep 23, 2026
  5. CompanySFA Therapeutics, Inc. Closes Seed Round Raise of $4MEIN Presswire · Jun 20, 2022
  6. CompanySFA Therapeutics Announces Updated Psoriasis Data for SFA-002, Bridge Financing, and Foundational PatentGlobeNewswire via BioSpace · Nov 9, 2023
  7. CompanySFA Therapeutics, Inc. Announces Executive Organizational ChangesPR Newswire · Aug 19, 2026
  8. IndependentThis pharma startup backed by Y Combinator aims to treat multiple diseases, for goodTechnical.ly, Holly Quinn · Mar 13, 2025
  9. IndependentSFA Therapeutics: Interview With CEO Dr. Ira Spector About The Biotech CompanyPulse 2.0, Amit Chowdhry · Apr 29, 2025
  10. IndependentSFA Therapeutics Shifts Leadership as Drug Programs AdvanceMyChesCo, Timothy Alexander · Aug 2026

Compiled from SEC, USPTO and ClinicalTrials.gov public records and published reports as of September 23, 2026. Form D notices report offerings under Regulation D; no such notice is on file for this company, and its absence does not by itself mean no money moved. Healthcare Venture Capital Fund holds no position in SFA Therapeutics. This page is not an offer to sell or a recommendation to buy any security.