Antiverse Secures £3.5m Cash Injection to Propel AI-driven Antibody Discovery Platform
Antiverse, a UK-based AI-driven biotech company, has successfully raised £3.5 million in seed funding.
This latest cash injection will enable the company’s growth by allowing it to strengthen its team through new hires and continue the development of its antibody design programs, many of which are in partnership with pharmaceutical companies.
Specifically, the fresh investment will enable the company to expand its laboratory and machine learning teams, strengthening the development of its internal assets targeting G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and ion channels for clinical applications.
Moreover, it will facilitate ongoing collaborations with pharmaceutical and biotech companies, paving the way for exciting new developments in the field.
Led by i&i Biotech Fund and Kadmos Capital, with additional contributions from existing investors InnoSpark Ventures, UKI2S, Tensor Ventures, and AngelHub, this latest round of funding increases the total equity financing raised to £7.2 million.
“A third of all FDA-approved drugs target GPCRs, yet, despite decades of research and billions of funding, only a few GPCR-targeting antibodies exist,” Murat Tunaboylu, CEO and co-founder of Antiverse said in a statement.
“Thanks to the support of our investors, we are one step closer to making GPCRs and other challenging targets druggable, bringing needed therapies to patients across the globe.”
The funding will also be directed toward improving the predictive accuracy of the design platform, with a strong emphasis on curating high-quality training data.
Leveraging a machine learning approach, the biotech company designs antibodies for difficult targets, facilitating the development of essential therapies for patients in need.
The current version of the platform employs ‘target-specific libraries,’ crafted using structural and sequence data to create highly confident libraries tailored to specific targets.
This innovative approach significantly enhances predictive accuracy compared to traditional antibody libraries, allowing Antiverse to design antibodies for challenging targets, such as GPCRs and ion channels.
As a result, Antiverse claims its platform accelerates the antibody discovery process to just six months, setting it apart from competitors in the field.
“Antiverse’s AI-driven antibody design platform demonstrates significant potential in advancing the development of novel antibody therapeutics, particularly for complex drug targets,” John Gebeily, operating partner at Kadmos Capital, added.
“We’re excited to support Murat and the team in their effort to significantly accelerate the development of life-saving treatments, and have a transformative impact on the pharmaceutical industry.”
Last year, Antiverse announced it was extending its collaboration with antibody engineering company GlobalBio to advance immune checkpoint inhibitors in cancer therapy. So far, the collaboration has successfully identified antibodies with therapeutic potential, with two candidates in preclinical development.
In line with its recent funding, the company has opened new facilities in Boston, MA, and Prague, Czech Republic, showcasing its commitment to expansion.