Matchpoint raises $150m Series B co-led by Nextech and Norwest for oral covalent drugs

Matchpoint Therapeutics, a Watertown, Massachusetts biotech that pairs machine learning with covalent chemistry, said on 7 October 2026 that it had raised $150 million in a Series B round co-led by Nextech Invest and Norwest¹. The money is meant first to move its lead candidate, MPT-062, into the clinic next year¹.

The round and the investors

Returning backers Sanofi Ventures and Digitalis Ventures took part, and the round brought in Invus, BB Biotech, T1D Fund and BOLD Longevity Growth as new investors¹. Access Biotechnology and Atlas Venture were founding investors¹. Kanishka Pothula of Nextech and Brian Matesic of Norwest are joining the board as part of the deal¹.

The round is more than twice the size of the $70 million Series A, led by Sanofi Ventures, that Matchpoint raised at its 2022 launch. The company has since taken $60 million in upfront cash from Novartis, which bought an option to develop oral covalent inhibitors against an unnamed transcription factor linked to several inflammatory diseases¹.

The platform and the pipeline

The company's Advanced Covalent Exploration (ACE) platform combines machine learning with a library of covalent compounds and with chemoproteomics, which is used to find molecules that bind covalently to their targets¹. The bet is that a covalent bond holds on to the target more durably, raising potency while limiting how much drug circulates through the body¹.

MPT-062 is an oral T cell modulator that Matchpoint presents as a first-in-class treatment for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases¹. Pothula said its mechanism could "precisely address the disease-causing over-activation of T cells"¹. Part of the round is reserved for what Matchpoint calls its "broader product pipeline", though it has not described those programmes¹.

What it means for the market

For investors, the round shows venture and public biotech investors such as BB Biotech backing a machine learning discovery platform once it has a lead asset heading for the clinic, with Sanofi Ventures staying in and Novartis already paying for access to a separate programme¹.

The competitive field is busy. Fierce Biotech notes that Vertex signed a $2 billion biobucks pact with Enlaza Therapeutics for covalent biologics last year, that Boehringer Ingelheim engaged Covant Therapeutics on covalent cancer candidates in 2023, and that Flagship-founded Expedition Medicines, which combines covalent chemistry with AI, was named to the Fierce 15 of 2026¹. For pharma business development teams, that points to a growing pool of covalent platforms to partner with, and to competition for the strongest of them.

The caveats are those of any preclinical company. MPT-062 has not yet entered a clinical study, the company has not disclosed its other targets, and the terms of the Novartis option beyond the upfront payment are not given in the report¹. The first test of the platform in people is the MPT-062 study planned for next year¹.