Ukko, an Israel-based developer of therapeutics for food allergies, has secured $40m in a series B round led by Leaps by Bayer, an investment subsidiary of pharmaceutical and chemicals group Bayer.
The round included agribusiness Continental Grain, healthcare advisory SkyViews Life Science, PeakBridge Ventures, Fall Line Capital, Khosla Ventures, Innovation Endeavors and Time Ventures, a fund owned by Marc Benioff, CEO of enterprise software provider Salesforce.
Founded in 2016, Ukko has built a protein engineering platform which harnesses artificial intelligence technology to help it develop treatments for people with peanut allergies and an improved gluten product for people with sensitivities to gluten.
The company will use the funding to enter its investigational therapeutic into clinical trials for peanut allergy and to accelerate the development of its gluten product.
Juergen Eckhardt, managing director and head of Leaps by Bayer, said: “Ukko’s investigative approaches to solving allergies and food sensitivities both from the food side and the patient therapeutics side have the possibility of delivering enormous benefits for humanity.”
Ukko raised $7.7m from five undisclosed investors in 2017, according to a regulatory filing. Blu1877, the corporate venturing arm of packaged food producer Barilla, is among its existing investors, as is Slow Ventures, according to the company’s website.