French startup Iktos has secured €15.5 million in Sequence A funding for its AI-powered drug discovery platform.
The spherical was co-led by M Ventures and Debiopharm Innovation Fund, with participation from Omnes Capital, and can allow Iktos to develop its expertise additional and increase its SaaS software program providing. The corporate is about to launch Robotics, an end-to-end drug discovery platform that makes use of AI and automation of chemical synthesis to speed up drug discovery timelines.
Moreover, the corporate will increase its utility of options to organic merchandise, permitting it to supply totally built-in drug discovery companies to the pharmaceutical trade.
Iktos, which was based in 2016, makes use of a expertise platform for deep learning-based drug design that gives vital productiveness good points in upstream pharmaceutical R&D. The platform is accessible as skilled companies and SaaS software program Makya, and Spaya, a synthesis planning software program primarily based on Iktos’ proprietary AI expertise for retrosynthesis. Its AI options will speed up drug discovery whereas growing the probability of drug candidates reaching scientific improvement, with collaborations already in place with Janssen, Merck, Pfizer, Servier, Ono, and Teijin.
In keeping with Yann Gaston-Mathé, the President and co-founder of Iktos, “The applying of synthetic intelligence to early drug discovery and design gives the potential for a radical change for researchers exploring such a chemical universe. The applied sciences we’ve got developed have been enabling a number of companions in realizing this promise. We welcome our new, skilled, investor syndicate and contemporary financing that may permit us to execute our plan of being the popular companion for the trade to deal with their drug improvement wants.”
In the meantime, Dr. Nadiya Ishnazarova of M Ventures said, “We consider Iktos with its mature expertise throughout generative AI and synthesis planning, and developments in constructing totally built-in drug discovery platform has the potential to offer a aggressive edge for the pharma trade as AI/ML turns into a core function of R&D.”
Tanja Dowe, CEO of Debiopharm Innovation Fund added, “We’re very excited to collaborate with a powerful syndicate of sturdy buyers M Ventures and Omnes Capital to assist Iktos in executing its plans to develop cutting-edge end-to-end AIDD capabilities.”
The funding spherical will allow Iktos to proceed to be a most popular companion for the pharmaceutical trade, and the launch of Robotics will allow the corporate to grow to be one of many first to supply totally built-in drug discovery companies to the sector. With vital advantages already acknowledged in its AI options, Iktos is poised to play a number one position within the AI-powered drug discovery revolution.