US-headquartered drug discovery technology provider Insitro received $400m yesterday in a series C round featuring GV and Softbank Investment Advisors, on behalf of internet technology conglomerate Alphabet and telecommunications and internet group SoftBank.
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) led the round, which included Alexandria Venture Investments, the venture capital arm of life sciences real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities, as well as an unnamed healthcare provider and undisclosed investment group.
Andreessen Horowitz, Casdin Capital, Arch Venture Partners, Foresite Capital, Third Rock Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, Temasek and HOF Capital filled out the round with funds and accounts advised by T Rowe Price and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock.
Insitro uses machine learning technology to support drug development through enhanced medicine design, the creation of predictive cell-based disease models and the deployment of statistical genetics in locating druggable targets.
Paul McCracken, senior portfolio manager for thematic investing at CPP Investments, will join the company’s board of directors in connection with the round, which will fund the further development of its platform and product pipeline.
Daphne Koller, Insitro’s founder and CEO, said: “This series C financing, alongside our series B in mid-2020, provides us with tremendous resources from some of the best long-term investors in biotech, and will allow us to continue to expand our work towards bringing transformative medicines to patients faster and with fewer failures.”
The company launched in 2018 with $100m in series A funding from GV, Andreessen Horowitz, Arch Venture Partners, Foresite Capital and Third Rock secured at a $1.05bn valuation.
GV and pharmaceutical firm WuXi AppTec’s Corporate Venture Fund joined Alexandria Venture Investments, Andreessen Horowitz, CPP Investments, Casdin Capital, HOF Capital, Arch Venture Partners, Foresite Capital, Third Rock Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, funds managed by BlackRock and funds and accounts advised by T Rowe Price to add $143m in May 2020.
Other earlier investors in the company include Alphabet’s life sciences subsidiary Verily, in addition to Bezos Expeditions and Mubadala Investment.
