Recursion Pharmaceuticals Secures $121 Million Series C Financing to Advance Machine Learning-Driven Drug Discovery Platform

On July 15, 2019, VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) learned that biotechnology company Recursion Pharmaceuticals announced the completion of a $121 million Series C financing round. The round was led by Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, the flagship investment trust of Baillie Gifford. New investors participating in this round included Intermountain Ventures, the University of Minnesota, directors from the Texas Tech University System, and several angel investors.

Previous investors, including Lux Capital, Data Collective, Mubadala Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, Obvious Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Epic Ventures, Menlo Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, and CRV, also participated in this financing round. The proceeds from this round will support Recursion in further expanding its machine learning-enabled drug discovery platform, as well as developing new capabilities designed to fundamentally accelerate the discovery of new chemical entities and predictive safety pharmacology. In addition, Recursion will continue to advance its growing portfolio of preclinical and clinical assets, including its clinical-stage programs for cerebral cavernous malformation and neurofibromatosis type 2.

Recursion, founded on November 5, 2013, and headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, is a clinical-stage biotechnology company. Recursion integrates experimental biology and automation with artificial intelligence within a massively parallel system to efficiently discover potential drug candidates for various indications, including genetic disorders, inflammatory conditions, immunological diseases, and infectious diseases.

Recursion’s robotic platform features a rich, interconnected database containing over 2 petabytes of biological images, enabling the company’s machine learning approaches to elucidate the mechanisms of action and potential toxicity of drug candidates, decode biology, and advance novel therapies, thereby fundamentally improving people’s lives.

Although Recursion plans to prioritize the development of its own rare disease therapeutics business, it will continue to establish partnerships with leading pharmaceutical companies across multiple disease areas, including immuno-oncology, oncology, aging, and inflammation.

“We are delighted to see Recursion combining innovations from diverse fields to fundamentally transform healthcare,” said Marina Record, Investment Manager at Baillie Gifford. “We are impressed by Recursion’s extensive technological expertise, which has enhanced our understanding of biology and enabled the discovery of new drugs in a faster and more cost-effective manner.”

“Since completing our Series B financing two years ago, we have advanced two drug candidates discovered on our platform into clinical trials, increased our automated experimental throughput by an order of magnitude, and expanded from rare diseases into new therapeutic areas such as inflammation, infectious diseases, and immuno-oncology. Our team has grown from 64 to more than 150 employees, positioning us as a frontier company at the intersection of biotechnology and technology. We have also established Recursion’s headquarters in downtown Salt Lake City, occupying 100,000 square feet,” said Dr. Chris Gibson, CEO of Recursion.

Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, established in 1909 and headquartered in the United Kingdom, is a publicly traded investment trust that invests globally in strong businesses with above-average return potential. Scottish Mortgage is managed by Baillie Gifford, an investment management partnership based in Edinburgh. As of March 31, 2019, Scottish Mortgage had total net assets of £7.3 billion, making it one of the largest investment trusts in the UK. The trust aims to outperform global equity market indices over a five-year rolling period.

Intermountain Ventures, established in 1975, is a nonprofit healthcare organization based in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Intermountain Ventures operates 22 hospitals, employs approximately 1,100 primary and secondary care physicians, and includes a health plan division known as SelectHealth. Committed to helping people live their healthiest lives, Intermountain is widely recognized as a leader in clinical quality improvement and efficient healthcare delivery.

Baillie Gifford, founded in 1908, is a UK-based firm specializing in investment and asset management. Owned and operated by 39 senior partners, the company has maintained this partnership structure for over a century. As a unique large-scale investment enterprise in the UK, Baillie Gifford has remained an independent private partnership, enabling it to focus entirely on its clients and investments.

(Compiled by Cheng Tao)