Exscientia, a spin-out from the University of Dundee, has completed a $225 million Series D funding round.
Led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2i, the Series D funding round was also joined by previous investors in Exscientia, including Novo Holdings and funds managed by Blackrock.
The latest funding boost follows a successful Series C round last summer which saw the pharmatech company raise $100 million.
Exscientia uses AI across its platform from target identification through drug design and patient selection in order to precision engineer new medicines.
The firm has advanced the first two fully AI-designed drugs into clinical trials and now has over 20 active programmes in its pipeline.
Eric Chen, Managing Partner of SoftBank Investment Advisers, commented: “We believe Exscientia’s innovative use of AI to discover and design better quality drugs with greater efficiency has the potential to create important medicines faster than ever before.
“With the convergence of technology and biology, drug discovery is rapidly evolving in ways that will reshape the industry. The Exscientia team have been leaders in AI-based drug discovery since the field’s inception and we believe they will continue shaping its future.”
Funding from the investment round will be used to expand Exscientia’s drug discovery platform and advance the company’s proprietary pipeline through clinical testing.
Other investors in the Series D include Mubadala Investment Company, Farallon Capital, Casdin Capital, GT Healthcare Capital, Marshall Wace, Pivotal bioVenture Partners, Laurion Capital, Hongkou and Bristol-Myers Squibb
SoftBank announced it will also provide an additional $300 million equity commitment that can be drawn at the firm’s discretion.
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Andrew Hopkins, CEO of Exscientia said: “All of our investors share Exscientia’s vision to discover better drugs, faster, through AI and automation. Our patient-first AI platform has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to precision design drugs that address patients’ needs.
“With the Series D completed, the quality and depth of our shareholder base allows us the freedom to continue to scale both our platform and pipeline.
Spun-out of the University of Dundee, Exscientia currently employs more than 100 people globally, with offices in Oxford, Miami, Osaka and Dundee.