Funding profile · Oncology therapeutics

Tradewind BioScience

Eight years after incorporation, the largest documented outside check this company has taken is a federal grant, and the SEC has no registrant under its name. Here is the whole capital record.

$405,552NIH STTR Phase I award, the largest documented outside capital
$120,000Y Combinator seed, Winter 2018 batch, per Tracxn
0Form D offerings on file with the SEC under the company name
2Employees listed in the Y Combinator directory, Sep 2026

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

Rounds at a glance

When Round Amount Investors Source
Before 2018 Pre-seed, referenced in a law firm case study; a freedom to operate opinion was used in the pitch deck Not disclosed Not disclosed Company-stated
Mar 2018 Y Combinator, Winter 2018 batch; launched at demo day Mar 20, 2018 $120,000 Y Combinator Tracxn, YC directory
Apr 2021 to Mar 2023 NIH STTR Phase I, R41CA250757, with the University of Pittsburgh $405,552 National Cancer Institute, non-dilutive NIH RePORTER
2018 to 2026 Priced venture round None announced None named Not found

What the filings show

SEC EDGAR · no Form D on file · searched Sep 22, 2026

Query
Company names matching “Tradewind”, form type D
Result
21 registrants returned, none of them Tradewind BioScience, Inc.
Offered
No Regulation D offering noticed under the company name
Sold
No amount on record
Investment vehicles
No EDGAR Form D filing mentioning the company was found in the records pull
Related persons
None on file
Filing
SEC EDGAR, no CIK assigned to this issuer

Federal award record · NIH STTR Phase I · awarded Apr 20, 2021

Project
1R41CA250757-01A1, National Cancer Institute
Amount
$405,552, fiscal year 2021
Period
Apr 20, 2021 to Mar 31, 2023
Principal investigator
Thaddeus David Allen
Academic partner
University of Pittsburgh, per the 2023 journal acknowledgment
Awardee address
Daly City, CA in the acknowledgment; San Carlos, CA on the company contact page
Follow on
No Phase II award found

Reading the filings

  1. The government wrote the biggest check.$405,552 from the National Cancer Institute against $120,000 of disclosed equity is a ratio of about 3.4 to 1. For a therapeutics company eight years old, that inverts the usual order.
  2. No Form D is not proof that no money moved.Issuers who raise under Section 4(a)(2) rather than Regulation D file no Form D at all, and the SBIR awardee profile marks the firm as venture funded. What the absence does establish is that no Regulation D offering has been noticed under the company name in eight years, which is unusual for a biotech that has taken outside capital.
  3. The 2018 plan and the 2026 record do not line up.At demo day the founder told TechCrunch the company would need between $7 million and $10 million to reach a first clinical trial within three years, which would have meant 2021. Documented outside capital since then totals one Phase I grant that closed on March 31, 2023.
  4. Headcount has not moved and neither has the website.The Y Combinator directory lists two people and status Active in September 2026. The SBIR profile, last edited in October 2022, gives an employee range of 1 to 4 and revenue under $0.5 million. The company site still carries a 2021 copyright.
  5. The asset sits partly outside the company.The foundational intellectual property is licensed in from the University of Michigan by the company’s own account, the grant work was executed with the University of Pittsburgh, and the 2023 paper that validated the humanized antibodies lists no Tradewind employee as an author. A 2024 disclosure states the co-founder “has received no income from Tradewind and Tradewind did not provide any support for the work performed here.”

Commercial signals

Signal Detail Source type
Stage Preclinical. No IND disclosed, no registered trial, no FDA record. Public record
Revenue Under $0.5 million range, SBIR awardee profile, last edited Oct 2022. No product, no partnership revenue disclosed. Independent
Facilities MBC BioLabs, 733 Industrial Rd, San Carlos, CA. Shared incubator space rather than owned labs. Company-stated
Competing estates Anti-EGFL6 antibody patents are held by the University of Texas System and by Taipei Medical University and partners. No issued patent was found under the Tradewind name. Public record
Deals No licensing deal, option, or pharma partnership found in the record. Not found

What to watch

  • A first Form D. Any priced round sold under Regulation D would have to be noticed within 15 days of first sale.
  • A Phase II STTR. It is the cheapest credible next step and none has appeared since the Phase I closed in March 2023.
  • An IND filing or a trial registration, which is the event that would change the valuation basis.
  • Whether the University of Michigan license is still current, and whether it survives a company running at two people.
  • Any assignment of the Michigan estate to a different operating company, which would read as a reset.

The Tradewind BioScience story on Healthcare DiscoveryHealthcare Discovery

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Sources

  1. Public recordNIH RePORTER project 1R41CA250757-01A1NIH, National Cancer Institute · FY2021
  2. Public recordEDGAR company search, registrants matching Tradewind, form type DSEC · accessed Sep 22, 2026
  3. Public recordGeneration and characterization of humanized affinity-matured EGFL6 antibodies for ovarian cancer therapy, with grant acknowledgmentGynecologic Oncology · Feb 17, 2023
  4. Public recordConflict of interest statement naming Tradewind BioscienceJournal of Clinical Investigation · Nov 1, 2024
  5. Public recordUS patent 11,578,121 and US application 20190031751, competing anti-EGFL6 antibody estatesUSPTO · 2019 and 2023
  6. IndependentTradewind BioScience funding rounds and investorsTracxn · accessed Sep 22, 2026
  7. IndependentTradewind Bioscience Inc SBIR awardee company profile, employee and revenue rangesinKnowvation · last edited Oct 20, 2022
  8. IndependentTradewind BioScience attacks the physiology of tumors to treat cancerTechCrunch, Jonathan Shieber · Mar 20, 2018
  9. IndependentTradewind BioScience case study, pre-seed fundraising and freedom to operateCognition IP · Sep 5, 2023
  10. CompanyTradewind BioScience contact and science pagestradewindbio.com · accessed Sep 22, 2026
  11. CompanyTradewind BioScience company page, batch, team size and statusY Combinator directory · accessed Sep 23, 2026

Compiled from SEC, NIH, USPTO and other public records and published reports as of September 22, 2026. Form D notices report offerings under Regulation D; the absence of a notice does not establish that no capital was raised, because offerings under Section 4(a)(2) require no Form D. Healthcare Venture Capital Fund holds no position in Tradewind BioScience. This page is not an offer to sell or a recommendation to buy any security.