US-based drug data collation software tool developer Owkin has extended its series A round to $52m with an extension backed by subdivisions of financial services and investment group Fidelity and internet technology group Alphabet, TechCrunch reported on Friday.
Cathay Innovation, a fund raised by private equity firm Cathay Capital, took part in the $25m extension along with state-owned investment bank Bpifrance’s Large Venture unit and France-based pension fund MACSF.
GV invested on behalf of Alphabet while Fidelity participated through two separate vehicles: Eight Road Ventures and F-Prime Capital.
The Fidelity units had together co-led Owkin’s initial series A close of undisclosed size in March 2019, investing alongside GV, Cathay Innovation and NJF Capital.
Founded in 2016, Owkin markets a cloud-hosted software platform, Owkin Studio, that enables drug researchers to collate anonymised medical data from external research projects in order to inform the selection of drug candidates.
Owkin Studio employs machine learning algorithms trained to learn from across multiple edge locations – a technique called federated deep learning – in a bid to provide clarity on how patients might interact with specific molecules.
The company recently launched a collaborative portal dedicated to Covid-19 research, initially targeting cardiovascular complications that result from the deadly disease.
To generate revenue, Owkin typically charges pharmaceutical firms for accessing its technology, and it also organises licences on behalf of academic tech transfer offices.
Owkin previously disclosed $11m in what was also branded series A capital in January 2018 in a round led by Otium Venture that featured Cathay Innovation, NJF Capital and Plug and Play, before GV was reported to have added $5m in May the same year.
However TechCrunch said Owkin had now raised $55m to date implying all of the funding formed part of the same series A round.