Drug discovery with artificial intelligence
Evotec participates in Exscientia's financing round
Evotec SE announced that the Company has participated in the Series C funding round of Exscientia, the artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company. The funding round led by new investor Novo Holdings raised $ 60 m with the existing investors’ consortium consisting of Evotec, Bristol Myers Squibb, and GT Healthcare Capital also participating in the round.
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Exscientia will use the proceeds of this financing round to expand the company’s existing portfolio and pipeline, by launching new projects, progressing advanced projects to the clinic, and expanding AI biology as part of its full-stack capabilities. In addition, the company plans to accelerate its international expansion, including the build-out of its presence in the USA. Robert Ghenchev, Senior Partner and Head of Novo Growth, the growth equity arm of Novo Holdings, joins Exscientia’s board of directors as part of the financing round.
Dr Werner Lanthaler, Chief Executive Officer of Evotec, commented: “Evotec was the first strategic and operational investor in Exscientia and we are extremely pleased it has made such impressive progress since that time and to be part of this significant fund raising. Evotec and Exscientia, together, look forward to realising further synergistic potential in innovative drug discovery.”
Robert Ghenchev at Novo Holdings commented: “Through its impressive track record to date, Exscientia has demonstrated the value of combining deep scientific expertise with cutting-edge technology capabilities to significantly accelerate drug discovery. Novo Holdings’ investment underscores our interest in supporting technology companies that enable life science research and innovation, and our commitment to this area. We see significant opportunity for the company to further grow its participation in the drug discovery ecosystem and are excited to work with the Exscientia team in realising this vision.”
“This investment highlights the increasing commitment to the potential of AI to transform drug discovery and the excitement that we have garnered around the innovative work we are doing at Exscientia”, said Prof. Andrew Hopkins, CEO and founder of Exscientia. “We have now demonstrated multiple times that our platform can accelerate the time between the start of an idea and a viable new drug candidate for patients in need of treatments, fast tracking the entire R&D process. We are delighted that Novo Holdings, one of the world’s preeminent life science investors, recognises the potential of the platform to transform the pharmaceutical industry.”
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