US-based digital medicine developer Akili Interactive Labs boosted its series B round to $42.4m on Wednesday following $11.9m of additional funds provided by pharmaceutical firms Amgen and Merck Group.
The corporates supplied the cash through their respective investment subsidiaries, Amgen Ventures and Merck Ventures, the latter of which operates as M Ventures in North America.
Akili received the initial $30.5m from healthcare R&D company PureTech Health, Jazz Venture Partners and Canepa Advanced Healthcare Fund in January 2016.
Akili develops mobile games that increase cognitive function. The games are intended to treat conditions such as major depressive disorder, traumatic brain injury, Parkinson’s disease and paediatric attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
The funding will go towards an expansion of Akili’s clinical development with an increased focus on neurodegeneration.
The company will also scale its commercial infrastructure as it prepares to seek regulatory approval for its lead product candidate, Project: Evo, which is based on technology licensed from University of California, San Francisco.
Akili was co-founded by PureTech Health, which incubated the company through its PureTech Ventures unit, as well as neuroscientists and games designers. It has not disclosed details about its series A round.