Eleven AI-Driven Biopharma Companies Secure $357M in July Funding Round

According to data monitoring by Pharma Intelligence, in July 2024, a total of 11 AI drug discovery-related companies worldwide completed new rounds of financing, with a disclosed total amount of approximately US$357 million (equivalent to about RMB 2.885 billion).

Financing Overview

In July, 2 Chinese domestic AI pharmaceutical companies received new rounds of financing, namelyInnovmab TherapeuticsCompleted angel+ round financing andReviR Therapeutics (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.This month, a $30 million Series A round of financing.

In the AI-driven drug discovery field, Innovmab Therapeutics has a rare preclinical layout.ADC New Drug Pipeline, The entire chain builds an AI drug discovery pathway with a new drug pipeline + clinical testing tools + clinical omics big data + AI computing model. This round of funding is provided by PuGongYing (Shenzhen) Pharmaceutical Venture Capital, and subsequently, an R&D center will also be established in the Shenzhen incubator.

ReviR TherapeuticsIs aTargeted RNA Small Molecule Drugs Combined with AI TechnologyA biotechnology company engaged in the research and development of innovative drugs for central nervous system diseases, cancer, and other rare genetic disorders.

This round of financing was led by Lapam Investment, with XtalPi once again betting on early-stage companies, and the CMT Research Foundation (CMTRF) also participating.

CMTRF simultaneously establishes a strategic partnership with ReviR Therapeutics to jointly advance the research of small-molecule targeted RNA therapies for modulating the expression of the CMT1A pathogenic gene.

There were no financing events exceeding 100 million US dollars this month, and the global market has stabilized. From a global perspective, the highest financing amount came fromCytoReason, IsraelCompany andHuma (UK)(Formerly known as Medopad), securing $80 million in funding respectively.

CytoReason, a company specializing in computational disease models for drug discovery, receivedNVIDIA and PfizerLed the investment, marking the fourth AI pharmaceutical company NVIDIA has invested in this year. CytoReason has chosen to use artificial intelligence to tackle biological challenges in drug development.

As a digital medical service innovation company, Huma has launched aAI-based Cloud PlatformThe biggest highlight is the generative AI-powered builder experience, which can convert text prompts into ready-to-use applications within minutes. It is currently being used by some startups and large pharmaceutical companies.

In mid-July, there were a total of 8 early-stage projects, with half of the startups completing seed funding. Four companies are in the sub-tracks of AI + drug discovery, AI + drug toxicity and safety prediction, and AI + cancer treatment solutions. All received small-scale financing, but the cost reduction and efficiency improvement of AI and biomedicine have gradually been validated.

Biostate.AIAI tools utilizing data analysis have achieved a tenfold cost reduction by predicting biological states, significantly lowering data collection costs and creating a data advantage.

Founded by ChineseWaypoint Bio and PolyModelsBoth focus on AI-powered drug discovery platforms, accelerating drug development through automation, modeling, and data. They have raised $14.5 million and £1.1 million in seed funding, respectively.

The following is a summary of financing:

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Financing Enterprise Details

Biostate AI

Round: Seed Round

Amount: 4 million US dollars

Completed a $4 million seed funding round, with investments from Matter Venture Partners, Vision Plus Capital, Catapult Ventures, Caltech, and several individual investors. Biostate AI is dedicated to developing AI technologies in the life sciences field to improve global health.

Biostate AI is a U.S.-based bioinformatics data service provider, focusing on the development of generative AI that benefits global human health. Its total RNA sequencing utilizes the patented Barcode-Integrated Reverse Transcription (BIRT) technology to analyze all types of RNA, including long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), microRNA (miRNA), circular RNA (circRNA), and enhancer RNA (eRNA).

Waypoint Bio

Round: Seed Round

Amount: 14.5 million US dollars

$14.5 Million Seed Funding Led by Hummingbird Ventures, with Other Investors Including Recode Ventures and Fifty Years.

Waypoint Bio leverages its proprietary in vivo spatial combinatorial screening technology, combining spatial biology with combinatorial screening. This platform enables initial screening in vivo and simultaneously measures hundreds of phenotypes at the single-cell level, revealing which designs work and why. This approach can simultaneously assess the performance of multiple cell therapy candidates within the solid tumor microenvironment, guiding the design of cell therapies.

Waypoint Bio was co-founded by Xinchen Wang and David Phizicky, alumni of MIT, with complementary dry and wet lab backgrounds, and possesses the capability to leverage artificial intelligence, automation, and spatial biology to build the next generation of drug discovery platforms.

PolyModels

Round: Seed Round

Amount: 1.1 million pounds

PolyModels Secures £1.1 Million in Seed Funding from Marathon Venture Capital

PolyModels is a biotechnology software platform developer that accelerates drug development through modeling, simulation, and data. It aims to create artificial intelligence tools for modeling, simulating, and accessing insights into pharmaceutical process development, all completed within a collaborative platform designed for pharmaceutical companies.

Spotlight Medical

Round: Seed Round

Amount: 6.2 million euros

Raised €6.2 million in a seed funding round, led by Kurma Partners and Heal Capital.

Spotlight Medical is a pioneering startup developing AI-driven prognostic tests to help doctors select the most effective treatments for cancer patients, ensuring no patient is over- or under-treated, ultimately improving cancer outcomes. This also marks an important milestone in the commercialization of AI-based cancer treatment solutions.

Innovmab Therapeutics

Round: Angel+ Round

Amount: Undisclosed

Innovmab Therapeutics completed the angel+ round of financing from Dandelion (Shenzhen) Medical Venture Capital.

Innovmab Therapeutics is an AI-driven pharmaceutical tool platform. Based on proteomics technology and a variety of highly clinically relevant disease model libraries, such as PDX/PDO, the company has established a distinctive drug R&D decision-making tool platform. By leveraging high clinical relevance big data and deep biological insights obtained through AI computation, it accelerates the high-success-rate development of its self-developed new drug pipeline and IVD products.

Xellar Biosystems

Round: Angel+ Round

Amount: Billion-level RMB

Velabra Therapeutics Announces Completion of Angel+ Round Financing Worth Hundreds of Millions of RMB, Led by TriApex Group, with Follow-up Investments from Zenxuan Investment and TianTu Investment; Existing Shareholders Legend Capital and Yabai Capital Continue to Increase Their Investment.

YaoSu Technology, founded in Boston, USA at the end of 2021, is a biotech startup that integrates organoid-on-a-chip, high-content three-dimensional (3D) cellular imaging, computer vision (CV), and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies for drug discovery under the concept of "3D-Wet-AI".

Generate 3D images of cells through large-scale organ chips, and construct complex networks of interactions between gene clusters and compound structures, thereby providing more accurate disease and drug efficacy evaluation models. Further integrate AI technology to rapidly screen out the most valuable and promising candidate drugs.

Brenig Therapeutics

Round: Series A

Amount: 65 million US dollars

Brenig Therapeutics Announces $65 Million Series A FinancingBrenig Therapeutics announced the completion of a $65 million Series A financing round. The round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and supported by another U.S. healthcare investor, along with existing investors OrbiMed, Torrey Pines Investments, and BioGeneration Ventures. As part of this financing, NEA partner Ed Mathers will join the company's board of directors.

Brenig Therapeutics is a neuroscience drug development company utilizing an AI/ML-based discovery platform. Headquartered in Boston, the company focuses on neurology, particularly drugs for Parkinson's disease. Brenig currently has a preclinical development candidate, BT-267.

ReviR Therapeutics

Round: Series A

Amount: 30 million US dollars

ReviR Therapeutics Completes $30 Million Series A Financing, Led by Lapam Capital, with Continued Investment from Existing Shareholders CDH Investments, Five Source Capital, and Yabai Capital, and Participation from XtalPi and CMT Research Foundation.

ReviR Therapeutics is a developer of small-molecule drugs targeting RNA, leveraging artificial intelligence algorithms and gene technology to drive innovative drug discovery. Focused on RNA spatial structure computation, the company has built the voyageRTM AI platform to develop small-molecule drugs targeting RNA, addressing unmet clinical needs in oncology and rare diseases.

CytoReason

Round: B Round

Amount: 80 million US dollars

CytoReason, a company specializing in AI + disease models, announced that it has raised $80 million from NVIDIA, Pfizer, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and OurCrowd.

CytoReason is dedicated to providing predictive insights to biopharmaceutical companies by utilizing computational disease models, helping them shift their R&D decision-making from a trial-and-error approach to a data-driven model. The company’s artificial intelligence technology assists scientists in identifying potential drug targets and indications, stratifying patient populations, comparing drugs for different diseases or different drugs for the same disease, and evaluating their R&D portfolio against alternative therapies.

Regard

Round: B Round

Amount: 61 million US dollars

Regard Announces $61 Million Series B Financing Led by Oak HC/FT, with Participation from Cedars-Sinai Health Ventures and Existing Investors TenOneTen Ventures, Calibrate Ventures, and Techstars

Regard, founded in 2017, is an AI clinical insights platform for American clinicians. It is dedicated to providing AI clinical insight services for patient data by analyzing all available data and recommending diagnoses to bridge the gap in clinical insights, enabling clinicians to deliver better healthcare.

Huma（Medopad）

Round: D Round

Amount: 80 million US dollars

Medopad Raises $80 Million in Series D Funding, with Investments from Leaps by Bayer, AstraZeneca, Hitachi Ventures, and HAT.

Huma focuses on digital health, leveraging generative AI technology to assist developers in building healthcare applications. It aims to make medical services more democratized and accessible through its platform, providing convenient health management tools for users of all sizes.

Currently, Huma has achieved a milestone by becoming a configurable, disease-agnostic FDA Class II, EU MDR Class IIb, and Saudi FDA Class C platform that enables rapid, no-code configuration and can host AI/ML models.

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