ARTIS Ventures is a financial services firm that finances early-to-late-stage venture investments. The team supports its portfolio companies through their entire life cycle, from initial venture investment to public offering and beyond.

Artis Ventures (AV)

AMV is a venture capital firm investing in early-stage digital health, tech, and life sciences companies. The firm has provided early-stage financing for ground-breaking companies such as Amgen, Tandem Computer, and Applied BioSystems. Asset Management was founded in 1965 by venture capitalist Franklin ''Pitch'' Johnson in Palo Alto, California.

Asset Management Ventures (AMV)

Rising Tide their technological advancements in big data analytics, computer-aided design, optical sensors, mobile applications in vertical markets, community-connected networks, and services.

Rising Tide

Better Ventures provides funding and support to technology startups building innovative solutions to big and important problems, from work and education to health and sustainability. Given the magnitude of the these problems and the enormous market opportunities they represent, it takes the best and brightest minds armed with the best resources to address them. These are the people they seek to back – entrepreneurs committed to using the tools and methodologies of the modern technology startup to build world-changing companies that make money and do good. They're thinking big and expecting big results, and so are the entrepreneurs they back.

Better Ventures

Abstract is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco with $1.5 billion in assets under management. We are sector-agnostic, focused on seed and early stage founders. Our reputation among founders is built on fierce loyalty, unparalleled connections, and a relentless drive to help them win.

Abstract

Blue Bear Ventures (BBV) engages founders working on the frontiers of science and technology with the potential to solve some of the most pressing challenges we face in the world today.

Blue Bear Ventures

Modi Ventures is a Texas-based investment firm investing in fund managers and founders building companies shaping the future of humanity. The company's primary investment focus is into disruptive and emerging AI and Medical technology applications. Investments in successful funds include Khosla Ventures, Section 32, Artis Ventures, Draper Associates and Antler Global. Direct investments include, Starling Medicine and Cyberdontics. For more information please visit www.modivc.com.

Modi Ventures

Merck Global Health Innovation Fund (Merck GHI) is evolving corporate healthcare venture capital globally by utilizing their healthcare ecosystem strategy.  This investment strategy connects innovative companies with complementary technologies to develop integrated healthcare solutions.  Merck GHI has $500M under management and provides growth capital to emerging healthcare technology companies worldwide while leveraging the vast R&D-based, global resources of Merck.  With a vision that data will be the currency in healthcare, GHI invests broadly in digital health.  GHI invests in platform companies with proven technologies or business models where Merck's expertise and perspectives can accelerate revenue growth and enhance value creation.   Since late 2010, Merck GHI has made over 20 investments in Digital Health companies.

Merck Global Health Innovation Fund

Human Ventures is a fund and partner in New York City. They possess their own perspective on evaluating companies due to their experience in building businesses themselves. Consequently, Human Ventures focuses on supporting founders who are establishing category-defining companies in the pre-seed and seed stages. In terms of their investment focus, they concentrate on the Human Needs Economy, which encompasses areas such as health and wellness, the future of work and finance, the attention economy, and human connection through experiences.

Human Ventures

TVC is a transformational, early-stage venture firm backed by world class entrepreneurs and business leaders. Led by a seasoned team of venture investors, ex-founders, and investment management executives, we invest our capital, time, and network into highly defensible, fast-growing companies with the potential to solve the world’s largest problems. Our strategy is grounded on writing high conviction checks at Pre-Seed and Seed with healthy follow-on reserves through Series A; demonstrating deep value to enable increased ownership over time. Our experienced team is headquartered in New York City and London, but we are excited to meet founders from around the world with a strong preference for diverse founding teams. At its core, we believe that diversity is not only good for business, but great for financial returns.

The Venture Collective

LongeVC was created to support early-stage biotech and longevity-focused founders on their way to gain industrial momentum, raise capital, and grow to become the shapers of tomorrow's biotech industry.

LongeVC

First Spark Ventures is a deep tech venture capital firm that invests in scientists globally. They specialize in advanced computing, digital biology and biotech, and cyber-physical systems.

First Spark Ventures

Not Boring Capital is an $8 million venture fund that invests in companies with stories to tell and helps tell them.

Not Boring Capital

Unnatural Products

Unnatural Products is a startup pairing AI with chemistry to create treatments for drug targets. Its AI-enhanced technology platform creates entirely new drugs by engineering passively permeable, macrocyclic peptides that access traditionally undruggable targets. Unnatural Products was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Santa Cruz, California.

<div>Unnatural Products (UNP) specializes in developing new drugs through a platform that combines AI with chemistry. The company focuses on engineering synthetic macrocycles, a type of large, ring-shaped molecule, to mimic natural macrocycles. These macrocycles can target complex proteins that are difficult to address with traditional small molecules or biologics, potentially offering new treatments for various diseases.</div>

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

AI Drug Discovery

Unnatural Products Announces BridgeBio Exercises Option to License Macrocyclic Therapeutics for Development in Rare Diseases and Oncology

<div>
 
 Unnatural Products (UNP) specializes in developing new drugs through a platform that combines AI with chemistry. The company focuses on engineering synthetic macrocycles, a type of large, ring-shaped molecule, to mimic natural macrocycles. These macrocycles can target complex proteins that are difficult to address with traditional small molecules or biologics, potentially offering new treatments for various diseases.
 
 
 The company plans to build a pipeline of compounds with a focus on identifying cancer treatments initially.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 In 
 <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/10/12/2312496/0/en/Unnatural-Products-Announces-Research-Discovery-Collaboration-with-BridgeBio-Pharma-to-Target-Rare-Diseases-with-Potential-Oncology-Applications.html">
 October 2021
 </a>
 , UNP partnered with BridgeBio Pharma to generate drug-like macrocycles to target rare fibrotic diseases and potential oncology applications. In 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/25893">
 January 2024
 </a>
 , it partnered with Merck and Co. to collaboratively develop a cancer therapy in a deal amounting to USD 220 million.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In 
 <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/12/19/2798607/0/en/Unnatural-Products-Inc-Announces-32-Million-in-Series-A-Funding-Led-by-Merck-Global-Health-Innovation-Fund-and-ARTIS-Ventures.html">
 December 2023
 </a>
 , UNP raised USD 32 million in a Series A funding round led by Merck Global Health Innovation Fund and ARTIS Ventures. New investors including First Spark Ventures, The Venture Collective, Humain Ventures, LongeVC, and Not Boring Capital, alongside existing investors, also participated in the round. The funds were allocated toward advancing UNP&rsquo;s technology platform and expanding to other therapeutic opportunities.
 
</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.

Includes companies that use GenAI as a core part of their product offering for drug discovery & development

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

INCUMBENTS_PRESENT

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>
Merck and Co. and Unnatural Products (UNP) are partnering to develop a cancer therapy, a deal worth $220 million. Using UNP's drug discovery technology, they will develop macrocyclic candidates for an undisclosed oncology target. UNP's technology combines chemistry and AI to create synthetic macrocycles, similar to naturally occurring ones which were only previously attainable through injectable antibodies. UNP will receive an upfront payment from Merck and potential milestone payments of up to $220 million based on the candidate’s development and commercialization. 
</div>

Unnatural Products

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