Novo led a $60m series C round today for Exscientia, a UK-based drug discovery technology spinout of University of Dundee, that included fellow pharmaceutical firm Bristol-Myers Squibb.
The round also featured Evotec, a company that pursues drug discovery and development partnerships, as well as private equity firm GT Healthcare Capital, which took part through unnamed limited partners.
Exscientia has built an artificial intelligence-equipped drug discovery platform that taps into the outcomes of historic research to design compounds and rapidly progress them towards the clinic.
The company recently entered a potential therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) that it developed with pharmaceutical company Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma into a phase 1 clinical trial.
The series C funding will allow Exscientia to expand its portfolio and pipeline, progress several assets to the clinic and double down on its artificial intelligence capabilities. It also plans to accelerate international expansion in markets including in the US.
Robert Ghenchev, senior partner and head of Novo’s growth equity arm Novo Growth, is joining Exscientia’s board of directors in conjunction with the round.
GT Healthcare took part following a collaboration agreement between Exscientia and its drug discovery company, GT Apeiron Therapeutics, in June 2019.
GT Healthcare had previously backed Exscientia’s $26m series B round in January 2019 together with Evotec and pharmaceutical firm Celgene. Evotec had provided $17.7m in funding for the company in 2017, five years after it was founded as Ex Scientia.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.
