LabGenius tops up Series A to $25M
We’re well on our way to dramatically improving the discovery process for the next generation of drugs.
I’m delighted to announce that we’ve raised an additional $15M for LabGenius, extending our Series A round to a total of $25M. Atomico led the round, with participation from our current investors at Lux Capital, Obvious Ventures, Kindred Capital and Inovia Capital.
To add a fund of Atomico’s calibre and reputation, and to have our existing investor base double down, reflects the tremendous technical progress that the team has made over the past 12 months.
This fresh capital will enable us to greatly expand the scope and scale of our operations, as we slash the time, cost and risk of discovering next-generation protein therapeutics.
Since the first protein therapeutic was approved almost 40 years ago, this class of molecules has been used to treat both life-threatening conditions like cancer and chronic diseases like diabetes. Protein therapeutics represent 30% of total pharmaceutical sales. Yet high costs, risks and long timeframes associated with their development have limited the ability to bring new treatments to market. Today, getting just one new protein therapeutic to market costs the industry in excess of a billion pounds and can take more than a decade. LabGenius is building a systematic, machine learning-driven platform that will make the discovery of protein therapeutics faster and yield novel drugs that would not have been found using traditional methods.
Irina Haivas, Partner at Atomico, who is joining our board, had this to say: “The human and economic toll of COVID-19 makes it painfully obvious that we need a faster and better way to develop drugs. R&D in the industry reached a productivity bottleneck many years ago; the only way forward is through technology. LabGenius is taking on the task of applying software and engineering to biology, and doing this in an area of high complexity: proteins. We believe they have the best technical approach, and have been impressed by the team’s ability to execute and attract incredible talent. We’re excited to work with James and the team on their journey to change the industry paradigm”.
