{"entity":{"id":"light-horse-therapeutics","kind":"company","name":"Light Horse Therapeutics","aka":[],"tldr":"Light Horse Therapeutics edits genes inside cancer cells to find small, previously unnoticed pockets on cancer-driving proteins, then designs pills that bind those pockets. It works first on cancer targets that drug makers have long found hard to reach.","summary":"Light Horse Therapeutics is a San Diego drug discovery company that pairs precision gene editing with target-agnostic functional screens to uncover cryptic, chemically accessible functional sites in disease-critical proteins, and then develops small molecules against them. Its initial focus is high-value oncology targets that have resisted conventional drug discovery. Scientific co-founders are Brian Liau, Ben Cravatt and Nathanael Gray; Markus Renschler is chief executive. The company debuted on 9 January 2025 with a USD 62 million Series A led by founding investor Versant Ventures, with Mubadala Capital and strategic investors Bristol Myers Squibb, Taiho Ventures and AbbVie. On the same day it announced a multi-target oncology collaboration with Novartis carrying a USD 25 million upfront payment and eligibility for up to USD 1 billion in research, development and sales milestones plus royalties.","asOf":"2026-10-29","links":[{"label":"Official website","url":"https://lighthorsetx.com/"},{"label":"Series A launch release, January 2025","url":"https://lighthorsetx.com/light-horse-therapeutics-debuts-with-62-million-series-a-financing/"},{"label":"Novartis collaboration release, January 2025","url":"https://lighthorsetx.com/light-horse-therapeutics-enters-into-strategic-collaboration-with-novartis/"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":["targeted-therapy","drug-discovery"],"technologies":["crispr-screens"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":["Founding year not stated on the company website or launch release. No programme or named target has been disclosed, so no target or cancer is linked; the technology link is to CRISPR functional genomics because the company finds new druggable sites by editing genes in cancer cells. BioSpace named the company in its NextGen class of 2026."],"hq":"San Diego, CA","country":"US","companyType":"biotech","website":"https://lighthorsetx.com/","stage":"startup","investors":["versant-ventures"],"funding":[{"round":"Series A","year":2025,"amountUsd":62000000,"source":"https://lighthorsetx.com/light-horse-therapeutics-debuts-with-62-million-series-a-financing/","note":"Led by Versant Ventures with Mubadala Capital, Bristol Myers Squibb, Taiho Ventures and AbbVie"}]},"route":"/companies/light-horse-therapeutics/","neighbours":{"section":[{"id":"drug-discovery","kind":"section","name":"Drug Discovery Platforms","route":"/fronts/drug-discovery/"},{"id":"targeted-therapy","kind":"section","name":"Targeted Therapy","route":"/fronts/targeted-therapy/"}],"technology":[{"id":"crispr-screens","kind":"technology","name":"CRISPR functional genomics","route":"/technologies/crispr-screens/"}],"company":[{"id":"versant-ventures","kind":"company","name":"Versant Ventures","route":"/companies/versant-ventures/"}]}}