Insider Brief
- Evozyne has closed an $81 million Series B funding round, led by Fidelity Management & Research Company and OrbiMed, to advance its generative AI-powered drug discovery platform and product development.
- The funding follows a fruitful collaboration with NVIDIA earlier this year, producing a breakthrough AI model for designing therapeutic proteins, aimed at accelerating the creation of new treatments.
- With a focus on drug development and carbon capture, Evozyne plans to develop a portfolio of gene editors and enzymes that modulate immune response, continuing to address critical healthcare and sustainability challenges.
PRESS RELEASE — CHICAGO/September 27, 2023 — (BUSINESS WIRE) — Evozyne announced the closing of an $81 million Series B investment round that will fund the biotech’s generative AI-powered drug discovery platform and product development.
Fidelity Management & Research Company and OrbiMed led the funding with participation from NVentures, NVIDIA’s venture capital arm. Previous investors Paragon Biosciences and Valor Equity Partners expanded their support in the round.
“In its first three years, Evozyne proved it could deliver novel, high-performance proteins that solve critical problems in healthcare and sustainability. Our next three years will be tightly focused on maximizing our generative AI platform for drug development and carbon capture, while we develop a portfolio of gene editors and enzymes that modulate immune response,” said Mike Gamson, Evozyne CEO.
The funding follows a successful collaboration with NVIDIA earlier this year, in which the companies developed a breakthrough AI model that can be used to design therapeutic proteins. The approach, presented by NVIDIA at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, exponentially increases the number and quality of synthetic protein designs, which opens up the possibility to design new therapeutics and reduce development time for new treatments.
“Generative AI is fundamentally changing the drug discovery process. Through its collaborations with NVIDIA and Takeda, Evozyne has demonstrated its ability to create novel proteins that address longstanding therapeutic challenges,” said Matthew Rizzo, General Partner of OrbiMed. “This financing supports Evozyne’s product development and potential IND-enabling studies.”
Evozyne was founded in 2020 to solve high-impact problems in therapeutics and sustainability.
About Evozyne
Evozyne creates novel protein systems that enable a healthier world. For more information, visit https://www.evozyne.com/.
About Paragon Biosciences, LLC
Paragon Biosciences is a global life science leader that creates, builds and funds innovative biology-based companies. We accelerate scientific breakthroughs to address unmet medical needs. Learn more at https://www.paragonbiosci.com.
About OrbiMed
OrbiMed is a healthcare investment firm, with over $17 billion in assets under management. OrbiMed invests globally across the healthcare industry through a range of private equity funds, public equity funds, and royalty/credit funds. OrbiMed’s team of over 100 professionals is based in New York City, San Francisco, London, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Herzliya and other key global markets.
Sheridan Chaney
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