Investors including internet company Digital Garage provided $13m of funding for US-based digital medicine developer Akili Interactive yesterday, increasing its series C round to $68m.
Digital Garage was joined by investment group CLSA and venture capital firms Omidyar Technology Ventures and Fearless Ventures, investing through subsidiary DG Incubation and DG Daiwa Ventures, the fund it launched with investment bank Daiwa Securities.
The $55m first tranche was led by Temasek and backed by pharmaceutical companies Amgen and Merck Group, through their Amgen Ventures and M Ventures units, as well as Baillie Gifford, Jazz Venture Partners, Canepa Advanced Healthcare Fund and Brooklands Capital Strategies in May 2018.
Akili is working on digital treatments for psychiatric and neurological conditions that will work by using video game-like programs to engage specific areas of the brain. Its lead candidate, AKL-T01, is targeted at attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children.
The company also has potential treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD) and inflammatory diseases including multiple sclerosis (MS) in its pipeline, and aims to secure positive results in a phase 2 clinical study in MDD and a pilot study in MS by the end of this year.
Eddie Martucci, Akili’s chief executive, said: “Both Akili and the broader field of digital medicine have been advancing at a significant pace.
“This additional backing from investors will help us significantly drive forward the development and deployment of our technology platform toward our goal of having a major impact in millions of patients and toward fulfilling the immense promise of digital medicine.”
Amgen Ventures, M Ventures, Jazz Venture Partners and Canepa Advanced Healthcare Fund had previously taken part in Akili’s series B round, which closed at $42.4m in 2016, alongside biopharmaceutical company PureTech Health.