Owkin Secures Series A Funding to Advance Machine Learning Platform for Predicting Treatment Outcomes and Disease Progression

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that Owkin recently completed its Series A financing round to collaborate with more healthcare companies globally and deploy its proprietary machine learning platform, Owkin Socrates.

Although the amount raised in this round of financing was not disclosed, Owkin had raised a total of $16 million by May 2018 and had already provided innovative AI algorithms to several cancer centers and pharmaceutical companies in Europe and the United States.

This round of financing was led by F-Prime Capital Partners and Eight Roads Ventures, with participation from GV, Cathay Innovation, and NJF Capital. It is reported that upon completion of the financing, Alex Pasteur, a partner at F-Prime Capital, will join Owkin’s board of directors.

Owkin is a New York-based healthcare startup founded in 2016, dedicated to advancing medical research through artificial intelligence. Its proprietary machine learning platform, Owkin Socrates, integrates biomedical imaging, genomics, and clinical data. By leveraging state-of-the-art machine learning and deep learning algorithms, the platform identifies disease-related biomarkers and resistance mechanisms, efficiently, intelligently, and effortlessly transforming clinical data into predictive models. Ultimately, this aims to shorten drug development timelines and enhance R&D efficiency.

Previously, Owkin also created the world’s largest AI-powered medical research network platform—OWKIN Loop—to harness the collective intelligence of research organizations and pharmaceutical companies, advancing drug development in oncology, cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative disorders, and autoimmune diseases.

Thomas Clozel, Co-founder and CEO of Owkin, stated: “We have been committed to fully integrating life sciences with machine learning, simplifying the most complex data processing and analysis tasks in medical research. We aim to reduce clinical trial costs and improve patient outcomes through Owkin Socrates.”

“Owkin boasts a world-class team with exceptional expertise in artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, and life sciences,” said Davor Hebel, Executive Partner and Head of Venture Capital at Eight Roads Ventures. “The approach of transforming real-world patient data into predictive models undoubtedly enhances the research capabilities of physicians and pharmaceutical companies, creating greater possibilities for curing complex and refractory diseases.”

F-Prime Capital Partners is one of the world’s largest asset management firms. Established in 1946, it primarily invests in the healthcare sector. To date, the firm has completed 171 investments and manages assets exceeding $2 trillion.

Eight Roads Ventures is a venture capital firm headquartered in London, UK. Established in 1994, it is a subsidiary of Fidelity International Limited (FIL). The firm maintains offices in China, India, Japan, and the UK. Over the past decade, Eight Roads Ventures has invested nearly $6 billion globally, with Alibaba being one of its portfolio companies.

GV, short for Google Ventures, is the venture capital arm launched by Alphabet in 2009. The firm focuses on sectors including life sciences, healthcare, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and agriculture.

Cathay Innovation is a venture capital firm headquartered in California, USA, primarily providing funding to digital technology companies in the US, European, and Chinese markets. The firm has offices in San Francisco, Paris, Beijing, and Shanghai.

NJF Capital is a venture capital firm headquartered in London, UK.

(Compiled by: Feng Yutong)