Biotech startup Antiverse announced on Oct. 16 that it raised $4.6 million in seed funding. The latest round of funding was led by i&i Biotech Fund and Kadmos Capital along with existing investors Innospark Ventures, UKI2S (managed by Future Planet Capital), Tensor Ventures, and AngelHub.
The latest capital brings Antiverse’s total funds to $10.1 million. Founded in 2017, Antiverse is a Cardiff-based antibody discovery company accelerating drug development through structural biology, machine learning, and medicine.
In 2018, Antiverse was part of Cambridge’s Accelerate Plus Cohort 15, an entrepreneurial training program that helps ventures with raising capital.
The new financing will be used to expand the company’s laboratory and machine learning teams, extending the development of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and ion channels as well as facilitating ongoing collaborations with pharma and biotech firms, the biotech startup said in a statement.
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Antiverse has expanded its reach by opening new facilities in Boston, Massachusetts and Prague, Czech Republic. The AI-driven biotech startup uses a machine-learning approach to design antibodies for challenging cases, helping patients with custom solutions.
Innospark Ventures, founded by Indian American venture capitalist Dr. Venkat Srinivasan, said in a statement: “We found in Antiverse a strong team using a combination of computational and biological innovations to look through that universe of antibodies efficiently, and with the audacity to apply their technology to challenging GPCR targets with potential impact on significant diseases. “
“At Innospark, we get excited about companies using AI for good. Antiverse undoubtedly is,” they noted in the statement titled “Why We Invested: Antiverse.”
Srinivasan strongly advocates for AI-led transformation, holding eight patents and having published over 30 peer-reviewed research papers, is the author of the published book, “The Intelligent Enterprise in the Era of Big Data.”
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Founded by CEO Murat Tunaboylu and CTO Ben Holland, Antiverse aims to develop the next-generation of computational antibody design technology, allowing them to move from target identification to functional antibody in just six months.