Standigm

Standigm develops novel AI-driven therapeutics using its early-stage drug discovery workflow AI to generate lead compounds. The company’s technology incorporates active data parsing of raw biomedical data, AI modeling of the organized data with meaningful insights, and biological interpretation of how the drug compounds can impact humans. This also allows the best compounds to be chosen for testing and development, thus expediting the drug discovery process. The company claims that it can complete its research process within seven months. 

Standigm’s platforms include Standigm ASK for target discovery, Standigm BEST for lead selection, and Standigm Insight for drug repurposing. As of October 2021, the company had one in-house program targeting Parkinson’s disease and four collaborative programs for cancer, Covid-19, fibrotic disease, and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The company is located in Seoul, South Korea, and opened a new office in Cambridge, UK, in August 2021 to cater to its expanding European market. 

Key customers and partnerships

The company forged several partnerships, including Nashville Bioscience (August 2023) to leverage the latter’s genomic and clinical database to build new, customized AI models for drug discovery; Curome Biosciences (September 2023) to discover new treatments and conduct non-clinical and clinical trials for rare diseases, such as mitochondrial disease; Merck Korea (June 2022) to leverage Merck’s AI software to enhance the company’s drug discovery capabilities; and SK Chemicals (July 2021) to obtain assistance in advancing its drug development capacity. The partnership resulted in an undisclosed investment by SK Capital. 

Funding and financials

In July 2021, the company raised USD 10 million in Series D funding from Pavilion Capital and an undisclosed strategic investment from SK Chemicals for the clinical research of the company’s AI-driven drug compounds and also to expand its access to global markets. In September 2023, the company announced plans to go public in 2024. The country of the IPO was not disclosed.