Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven biotech Enveda Biosciences has raised $130m in a Series C funding round to accelerate its drug discovery and development programmes.
The funding will enable Enveda to advance its pipeline of ten drug candidates, targeting immunology, obesity, fibrosis, chronic pain, and neurological disorders, with the company planning to achieve clinical catalysts in 2025 and 2026.
Kinnevik and FPV led the funding round, with participation from new and existing investors Baillie Gifford, Premji Invest, Lingotto Innovation, Lux Capital, Dimension Capital, True Ventures, Cresset Partners, The Nature Conservancy, and Henry R. Kravis. This latest Series C round builds on Enveda’s momentum from earlier funding milestones, including $55m raised in June 2024 with participation from Microsoft, and $51m secured in April 2023.
The US-based biotech employs machine learning and mass spectrometry to identify and analyse plant-derived molecules. Central to Enveda’s platform is PRISM, which analyses thousands of plant molecules simultaneously, eliminating the need for labour-intensive, costly analysis like nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis, thereby potentially speeding up the drug discovery process.
In October 2024, Enveda’s ENV-294 – an oral anti-inflammatory targeting atopic dermatitis and other inflammatory conditions – received investigational new drug (IND) clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to enter Phase I clinical trials.
Beyond anti-inflammatory treatments, Enveda is developing candidates across multiple therapeutic areas, including small molecules for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's disease, fibrosis, and a TGF-beta receptor type 1 inhibitor for dermatology and musculoskeletal disorders, as per GlobalData’s Pharma Intelligence Center.
GlobalData is the parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology.
The rise of AI in drug discovery has gained significant traction across the pharmaceutical industry, with companies like Insilico Medicine and Exscientia leading the charge. Insilico recently progressed an AI-discovered candidate for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis into Phase II clinical trials.
According to a report on GlobalData’s Pharma Intelligence Center, the pharma industry is forecast to spend over $407m on AI platforms by 2028, up from $46.9m in 2019, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.1%.
