Antiverse Raises $2 million to Advance AI Antibody Drug Discovery Platform

Antiverse, a biotechnology company developing a computational antibody drug discovery platform, has achieved seed funding of £1.4 million (US$2 million) total, which will be used to further develop Antiverse’s artificial intelligence (AI) antibody drug discovery platform. The AI-based technology can rapidly and accurately predict antibody–antigen binding to identify antibody drug candidates. The seed funding consists of new investment and match funding from the UKI2S Innovate Accelerator.

A portion of the capital raised will be used to build a laboratory in Cardiff, Wales, and to expand the technical team through recruitment of specialist machine learning engineers, laboratory scientists, and structural biologists, Antiverse said in a March 15, 2021 press release. Investors in the seed funding round include Development Bank of Wales, Angel Co-Investment Fund, Tensor Ventures, Wren Capital, Ed Parkinson, Cambridge Angels, and SyndicateRoom.

Antiverse’s work involves the combination of machine learning and phage display techniques to model antibody–antigen interactions. The current version of the platform uses next-generation sequencing and AI to provide diverse antibody candidates for any given target. The company expects that the technology will enable the development of drugs for “difficult” targets associated with cancer, heart, and lung diseases.

“Our investors recognize the potential of our AI-powered antibody drug discovery platform to provide a breakthrough in the industry. With our technology, it will be possible to develop drugs for difficult targets and ultimately reduce drug discovery timescales from years to weeks. In addition to platform development, the funding will enable us to invest in facilities and recruitment; we are grateful to our investors and Innovate UK for their continued support,” said Murat Tunaboylu, CEO of Antiverse, in the press release.

“Antiverse has an ambitious team of AI experts and scientists with a vision to transform drug discovery. This is a great example of a world class business taking off in Wales with the support of the Development Bank of Wales,” said Ed Parkinson, lead investor for the syndicate of Angel Investors, in the press release.

Source: Antiverse