In a world where flu kills up to 650,000 people a year and seasonal vaccines still miss the mark, Centivax believes it has cracked the code for universal protection, not just against flu, but against a broad class of pathogens. The South San Francisco-based startup, today disclosed a $45 million Series A, is preparing for its first human trial within the year.
At the center of its platform is a novel approach to vaccine design that CEO Dr. Jacob Glanville calls “counterintuitive, but effective.” Instead of tweaking flu proteins and hoping the immune system hits the right spot, Centivax encodes 22 highly diverse flu proteins from the past century, delivered via mRNA, each at sub-threshold doses. The immune system, forced to find commonalities, naturally hones in on the conserved regions that don’t change from strain to strain.
“No one’s ever been able to remove enough non-conserved sites to make a universal flu vaccine work,” Glanville said. “Our method flips that on its head, only the shared features are visible. That’s what the immune system learns to attack.”
Why Flu First?
Glanville says Flu is a logical starting point for Centivax. The virus mutates constantly, existing vaccines are only modestly effective, and demand is enormous. About 600 million flu shots are administered annually across a $7 billion market. It’s also well-studied and regulated, giving Centivax a clear clinical path forward. The company plans to benchmark its candidate directly against current vaccines using the HAI assay, the gold-standard correlate of protection.
But flu is only the beginning. Centivax’s epitope-focused platform is already in preclinical development for RSV, herpes viruses, HIV, malaria, and even a universal antivenom. Its goal: broad-spectrum immunity against rapidly mutating threats.
AI as a Tool
Centivax uses AI across multiple parts of its R&D process. “We use AI models for antigen stabilization engineering, along with some wetlab high-throughput data generation methods,” Glanville said. He points out that antigen stability was the breakthrough that made RSV and COVID vaccines successful, and Centivax has now industrialized that process for new targets.
The team also uses large language models (LLMs) to speed up literature review. “We use LLMs to accelerate our ability to distill large amounts of literature research,” he said, though he emphasized that all AI-generated outputs are closely checked by human experts.
The Road to Approval
Centivax plans to begin Phase I trials in the next 8 months, with a goal of full approval by 2029, mirroring the FDA’s own forecast for universal flu vaccine readiness. The company is building out regulatory plans not just in the U.S., where it has alignment with BARDA and NIH, but also in the EU and Asia. Longterm, it aims to make the vaccine globally accessible through a mix of direct commercialization and strategic partnerships.
If Centivax succeeds, the company sees a future where seasonal flu outbreaks are obsolete, and where vaccines can offer durable protection across evolving pathogens. That includes diseases like HIV and herpes, which have long evaded vaccine efforts.
Backing from VC Heavyweights
Centivax’s $45 million Series A led by Future Ventures, the firm founded by Steve Jurvetson, best known for early bets on SpaceX and Tesla. Jurvetson will serve as a board observer.
“I have been on a quest to find a credible antiviral breakthrough for over 20 years,” Jurvetson said in the announcement. Centivax has developed a universal shot for all forms of flu, and they have already demonstrated their universal immunity platforms in other areas, including universal antivenom. Their unique approach will hopefully lead to a historic transition to a post-pandemic era for humanity.”
Other investors in the oversubscribed round include NFX, BOLD Capital Partners, Base4 Capital, Kendall Capital Partners, Amplify Partners, and other investors. Notably, several insiders increased their positions, signaling strong conviction in Centivax’s long-term prospects despite the broader biotech funding pullback.
According to co-founder and Chief Business Officer Stephanie Wisner, the capital will fund Centivax through first-in-human trials, a key inflection point. “In today’s financing climate, we are proud to have assembled an exceptional syndicate of investors and an exceptional team, both of which have an impressive track record of bringing breakthrough technologies to market.”
In addition to venture funding, Centivax has secured $24 million in non-dilutive capital from groups including the Gates Foundation, CEPI, NIH, the U.S. Army, and Naval Medical Research Command—a rare mix of private and public support for a platform that aims to redefine global health security.
With the new funding and a growing pipeline, Centivax is betting that universal immunity isn’t just possible, it’s inevitable.
