Fifty Years is a venture capital firm that backs founders using technology to solve the world's biggest problems.  Entrepreneur-run and based in San Francisco, Fifty Years invests in companies that inspire. Specifically, they fund companies that, if successful, will be both massively profitable and make a serious dent in achieving one or more of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Fifty Years

Social Capital is a Menlo Park-based investment firm whose mission is to advance humanity by solving the world’s hardest problems. By harnessing technology to address core human needs, they aim to drive a bottom-up redistribution of power, capital and opportunity. To achieve this, they're building a new kind of company and a platform for empowering brilliant entrepreneurs and breakthrough products. Founded in 2011, the company is based in Menlo Park, California, United States.

Social Capital

KdT Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in startups in the data, engineering, and biology sector, as well as healthcare technology systems, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, agriculture, chemicals, gases, and life sciences. The firm was founded in 2017 in Austin, Texas by Cain McClary.

KdT Ventures

Creative Ventures is a deep tech venture firm investing in early-stage companies solving humanity’s most critical crises.  Led by a team of world-class experts, our deep tech acumen is informed by rigorous research, unmatched market understanding, and the dedication to lead our companies to success. Today’s problems can’t be solved by yesterday’s solutions. Let’s get Creative.

Creative Ventures

Material Impact establishes companies dedicated to transforming advancements in material science and deep technology into products.

Material Impact

In-Q-Tel identifies and partners with companies developing cutting-edge technologies to help deliver these solutions to the Central Intelligence Agency and the broader U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) to further their missions.

In-Q-Tel

Prosus Ventures is a venture investing arm of Prosus that invests in technology startups. They identify companies and founders with high potential and the ambition to scale globally correctly. Their goal is to help companies quickly impact the communities where they operate and provide them with tailored support that enables them to be leaders in their chosen markets.

Prosus Ventures

Hillspire is an integrated family office management company serving all the activities of Eric and Wendy Schmidt, including The Schmidt Family Foundation, the Schmidt Ocean Institute, and Schmidt Futures, and supporting 350+ employees worldwide.

Hillspire

Freeflow is a venture firm focused on making pre-seed and seed-stage investments in new companies working to solve complex problems in human and planetary health, and which have a direct connection to the California Institute of Technology (“Caltech”) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (“JPL”), an operating division of Caltech, in Pasadena, CA.   The GPs are David Fleck and Kevin Barrett, two longtime technology, life sciences and healthcare industry veterans who bring more than 50 combined years of technology and healthcare industry experience.   Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures), Chris Farmer (SignalFire) and Chris Douvos (Ahoy) represent the board of advisors and are also investors.  To date our syndicate partners include: 8VC, Sequoia, Coatue, Catalio Capital Management, Nexus Venture Partners, OrbiMed, Embark Ventures, Dolby Family Ventures, Hillhouse Capital, Cultivation Capital, Techstars, Synovia Capital, Heritage, Wilson Hill, and Caltech.

Freeflow Ventures

Tierra Biosciences

Tierra Biosciences is an operator of a synthetic biology company intended to accelerate the pace of discovery to enable the next generation of bioengineered products. The company's protein platform leverages cell-free protein production and artificial intelligence and couples high-throughput protein manufacturing with the simplicity of e-commerce.

<div>Tierra Biosciences, formerly known as Synvitrobio, is a synthetic biology company that focuses on the discovery and development of bio-based materials through its proprietary cell-free synthetic biology technology. The company's Tierra Protein Platform, leverages automation and AI to facilitate the synthesis of custom proteins outside of living cells. This platform represents an advancement in the field, enabling researchers to access a diverse array of proteins for various applications, including drug development and industrial biotechnology. As of March 2024, the company has produced over 5,000 proteins, offering a way to speed up the protein development process from months to weeks.&nbsp;</div>

Artificial intelligence is identifying and testing new therapies faster than ever.

AI Drug Discovery

Tierra Biosciences on LinkedIn: #geneediting #artificialintelligence #crispr #proteinsynthesis

<div>
 
 Tierra Biosciences, formerly known as Synvitrobio, is a synthetic biology company that focuses on the discovery and development of bio-based materials through its proprietary cell-free synthetic biology technology. The company's Tierra Protein Platform, leverages automation and AI to facilitate the synthesis of custom proteins outside of living cells. This platform represents an advancement in the field, enabling researchers to access a diverse array of proteins for various applications, including drug development and industrial biotechnology. As of March 2024, the company has produced over 5,000 proteins, offering a way to speed up the protein development process from months to weeks.&nbsp;
 
 
 The company AI-Driven Custom Protein Synthesis platform offers proteins-on-demand, combining cell-free protein production with AI.
 
 
 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In March 2024, Tierra Biosciences raised USD 11.4 million in a 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/27602">
 Series A funding
 </a>
 round led by Material Impact. The funds were allocated to reach a broader customer base and partner networks, strengthen its AI data generation capabilities, and assemble a commercial team for sales growth.
 
</div>

<div>
 
 HiberCell is a biotechnology company that develops novel therapies focused on oncology. It entered the AI drug discovery space when it acquired AI genomics analysis company Genuity Science (and its subsidiaries in Iceland and Ireland) in August 2021.&nbsp;
 
 
 Genuity Science&rsquo;s solutions include end-to-end therapeutic discovery and development services such as building custom disease datasets, discovering and prioritizing targets, identifying biomarkers, and optimizing clinical trials. Genuity Science leverages its AI-powered platform to manage, process, and analyze genomic data. HiberCell intends to use Genuity Science&rsquo;s AI/ML capabilities to advance its oncology pipeline of five programs, of which one has reached the Phase 2 clinical trial stage.
 
 
 As of March 2024, the company&rsquo;s pipeline included three drug candidates, namely: 1) HC-7366, targeting the general control nonderepressible 2 (GCN2) kinase as part of the integrated stress response (ISR) signaling pathway; 2) HC-5404, aimed at inhibiting the PKR-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK) involved in the unfolded protein response (UPR) signaling pathway; and 3) odetiglucan, a therapy targeting tumor-immune interactions within the tumor microenvironment​.&nbsp;
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 In December 2023, HiberCell and Merck &amp; Co partnered to conduct a Phase Ib trial to evaluate the combination therapy of belzutifan and HC-7366 for treating clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Further, in January 2021, the company partnered with Biodesix to develop an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay as a companion diagnostic test.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In 
 <a href="https://hibercell.com/news/hibercell-closes-67-4-million-series-b-financing-and-secures-30-million-debt-facility-from-hercules-capital/">
 May 2021
 </a>
 , HiberCell completed a Series B financing round, raising USD 67.4 million, and secured an additional USD 30 million in debt financing from Hercules Capital. The funds were expected to be used for clinical advancement of its novel therapeutic candidates. 
 
</div>

HiberCell

<div>
 
 Arbor Biotechnologies specializes in gene editing to develop novel therapeutics for a variety of indications, starting with liver-related diseases. It operates an AI-powered biodiscovery platform to discover novel CRISPR enzymes, which are sequences of repeating genetic code. To do this, its platform deploys computational search techniques, genome sequencing, gene synthesis, and high-throughput screening. This can eventually be turned into drugs or even applied to agriculture and other industrial uses. In 2018, the company announced the discovery of Cas13d, a new type of gene editing enzyme that helps to alter RNA to treat genetic diseases.&nbsp;
 
 
 As of February 2024, the company had five internal drug discovery programs, of which one was in the IND-enabling stage. It also has multiple collaborative programs under development focused on oncology and various other therapeutic areas.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 The company has a long-standing partnership with Vertex Pharmaceuticals since
 <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190103005194/en/Vertex-and-Arbor-Biotechnologies-Establish-Collaboration-to-Discover-Novel-Proteins-to-Advance-Discovery-of-Gene-Editing-Therapies">
 January 2019
 </a>
 , which focused on developing gene-editing treatments for cystic fibrosis and four other diseases. The alliance was further extended in 
 <a href="https://www.biospace.com/article/vertex-and-arbor-strike-a-1-2-billion-deal-for-gene-editing-programs/">
 August 2021
 </a>
 and 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15741">
 January 2023
 </a>
 .&nbsp;
 
 
 Other partnerships included a collaboration with 
 <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/arbor-biotechnologies-announces-collaboration-with-ginkgo-bioworks-to-advance-the-discovery-and-development-of-precision-gene-editors-302011991.html">
 Ginkgo Bioworks
 </a>
 (December 2023) to leverage Ginkgo's R&amp;D services to further optimize Arbor's novel precision editors, a non-exclusive licensing agreement with 
 <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/02/08/2380680/0/en/EdiGene-and-Arbor-Biotechnologies-Announce-Worldwide-Non-exclusive-License-Agreement-to-Advance-Ex-Vivo-Engineered-Cell-Therapy-Programs.html">
 EdiGene
 </a>
 (February 2022) to leverage Arbor&rsquo;s platform for ex vivo oncology therapies, a strategic research and non-exclusive licensing agreement with 
 <a href="https://investors.tcr2.com/news-releases/news-release-details/tcr2-therapeutics-and-arbor-biotechnologies-establish">
 TCR2 Therapeutics
 </a>
 (January 2022) to develop allogeneic TRuC T-cell therapies using Arbor&rsquo;s CRISPR technology, and a license agreement with 
 <a href="https://www.lonza.com/news/2020-12-23-14-00">
 Lonza
 </a>
 (December 2020) to use Arbor&rsquo;s gene-editing technology for Lonza&rsquo;s bioproduction products and services.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In its latest Series B funding round in November 2021, which was led by Ally Bridge Group, TCG Crossover, and Temasek, Arbor Biotechnologies raised USD 215 million. The proceeds of the round were earmarked to fuel the company&rsquo;s clinical development pipeline.
 
</div>

Arbor Biotechnologies

Based in the UK, Arctoris provides an automated drug discovery platform, offering fully validated research and development (R&amp;D) processes under an Experiments-as-a-Service model. The company works with biotechnology companies, AI drug discovery companies, pharma and academic institutions enabling these institutions to run experiments in Arctoris’s platform and provides on-demand access to a broad scale of datasets for AI drug discovery companies to train their algorithms.

Arctoris

<div>
 
 Frontier Medicines leverages AI/ML technologies to develop treatments for cancer-causing proteins that are dismissed by traditional pharma companies as undruggable.&nbsp;
 
 
 The company has a proprietary chemoproteomic platform which entails an approach based on the interaction of small-molecule compounds and proteins to screen a large number of targets and combine them with a protein database that contains more than 150,000 novel binding pockets (hotspots). This enables it to access 90% of the human proteome that were not previously targeted due to lack of hotspots. The platform&rsquo;s AI/ML engine incorporates a library of diverse compounds, a hotspot map that serves as the starting point for understanding the druggability of a potential therapeutic target, and lead design and generation.&nbsp;
 
 
 The company focuses on oncology and immunology target and, as of February 2024, it had five wholly-owned therapeutic programs and three AbbVie-partnered programs in its pipeline. All programs were in their discovery stage, except the company&rsquo;s lead candidate, FMC-376 (activated and inactivated forms), focused on treating different cancer types, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), colorectal carcinoma (CRC), and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), which is in the IND-enabling stage.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 The company entered a USD 100 million partnership with 
 <a href="https://news.abbvie.com/2020-12-02-AbbVie-and-Frontier-Medicines-Establish-Global-Partnership-to-Discover-and-Develop-Novel-Therapies-and-E3-Degraders-Against-Difficult-to-Drug-Targets">
 AbbVie
 </a>
 In December 2020 to develop small-molecule therapeutics against hard-to-drug protein targets including around 600 E3 ligases (the enzymes that drive the ubiquitination and degradation of proteins.&nbsp;
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In July 2021, the company raised USD 88.5 million in a 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/4347">
 Series B
 </a>
 funding round co-led by Woodline Partners LP and RA Capital Management, with equal participation from Deerfield Management Company. The proceeds were earmarked for advancing the company&rsquo;s drug pipeline and expanding operations in Boston, where its new facility was to complement the company&rsquo;s headquarters in California. 
 
</div>

Frontier Medicines

<div>
 
 Verge Genomics is a biotechnology company engaged in developing therapeutics for neurological diseases using human genomics and AI to accelerate drug discovery. The main target areas are Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson&rsquo;s Disease (PD), and Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD).&nbsp;
 
 
 It has built a proprietary all-human platform (unlike standard clinical trials that rely on animal data), called CONVERGE, that uses data sets from brain tissue samples of deceased patients with ALS and PD. While most drugs target only one gene at a time, the company claims its technology can identify hundreds of genes that cause disease and develop drugs that target all the genes at the same time. The company uses AI technology to optimize the drug discovery process as a whole.
 
 
 As of March 2024, Verge had one drug candidate in the clinical stage (Phase I) and 10 drug candidates in the discovery stage.&nbsp;
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 The company has partnerships with various tissue banks (such as Harvard University and University of Miami Miller School of Medicine) and several educational institutes and foundations (such as Target ALS, Answer ALS) that enabled its drug discovery platform.&nbsp;
 
 
 In addition, the company&rsquo;s customers include several pharmaceutical companies, such as 1) 
 <a href="https://www.vergegenomics.com/news-blog/verge-genomics-announces-research-collaboration-with-the-sheffield-institute-for-translational-neuroscience">
 Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN)
 </a>
 to accelerate the validation of novel drug targets and screening of drug compounds for Parkinson's disease (February 2021), 2) 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/4146">
 Eli Lilly
 </a>
 to research and develop novel therapies to treat ALS (July 2021), 3) 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/21707">
 Alexion
 </a>
 to identify novel drug targets for rare neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases (September 2023), and 4) 
 <a href="https://www.vergegenomics.com/news-blog/verge-genomics-and-the-pritzker-neuropsychiatric-disorders-research-consortium-form-cutting-edge-schizophrenia-research-collaboration">
 Pritzker Neuropsychiatric Disorders Research Consortium
 </a>
 to analyze data from schizophrenic patient&rsquo;s brain tissue with Verge&rsquo;s technology (October 2023).
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In December 2021, Verge raised USD 98 million in an oversubscribed 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/7426">
 Series A
 </a>
 funding round led by BlackRock. The funds were used to scale up its pre-clinical and clinical candidate programs in the pipeline and enhance its lead therapeutics through clinical testing. 
 
</div>

Verge Genomics

SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) companies providing their ML platform to other pharma companies for drug discovery services such as target selection, validation and lead optimization.

SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) companies providing their ML platform to other pharma companies to design and run preclinical experiments.

SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) companies providing their ML platform to other pharma companies to identify biomarkers (measurable biological signs used to determine disease progression) and predict drug response. 

SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) companies aggregating and analyzing biomedical data with the help of AI to generate insights across the drug development pipeline.

Biotechnology companies that have integrated AI as a core component of their in-house drug development process. They typically have a few in-house drug development programs, and also collaborate with pharma companies to develop certain drugs.

Companies leverage GenAI to support drug discovery through accelerated drug designing

Companies offer AI/ML-based SaaS products to accelerate the discovery and development of novel therapeutics

Offers AI/ML-based solutions to accelerate drug discovery and development

<div>
 Tierra Biosciences has raised $11.4 million in a Series A funding round. The funding round included participation from Material Impact, Prosus Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Hillspire, and others. The raised funds will be utilized for the expansion of the customer base and partner network, enhancement of AI data generation capabilities, and assembling of a commercial team to boost sales.
 Previously known as Synvitrobio, Tierra Biosciences is a synthetic biology company specialized in discovering and developing bio-based materials. This is achieved through its proprietary cell-free synthetic biology technology. The company's Tierra Protein Platform employs AI and automation to assist the synthesis of custom proteins outside living cells. To date, the company has successfully produced over 5,000 proteins, thereby speeding up the protein development process from months to weeks.
</div>

Tierra Biosciences

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