The funding will scale Antiverse’s AI-driven antibody discovery platform for partners while advancing its proprietary antibody programmes toward in vivo efficacy studies.
UK-based Antiverse, a biotech company developing AI-designed therapeutic antibodies for hard-to-target disease targets, has closed a $9.3 million Series A round led by Soulmates Ventures, with participation from Innovation Investment Capital, DOMiNO Ventures and existing investors DBW, Kadmos Capital and i&i Biotech Fund. The financing brings Antiverse’s total capital raised to more than $20 million.
One of the major challenges in modern medicine is the treatment of diseases linked to so-called undruggable molecular targets. Drug discovery in this area remains difficult, with attrition rates of around 90% for candidates entering clinical trials.
Antiverse is addressing this gap through an AI-led computational platform designed to generate therapeutic antibodies against complex targets such as G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) and ion channels, which are implicated in conditions including cancer, neurological disorders and rare genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis.
The company combines machine learning with in-house laboratory validation to generate and test antibody candidates. Its models design antibodies for specific disease targets, which are then built and evaluated using proprietary cell systems that replicate how the target proteins appear in the human body. Candidates showing promising results are subsequently advanced toward clinical development.
Antiverse has also entered into a research agreement with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to design antibodies targeting the extracellular region of the CFTR protein, a historically challenging target. Under the collaboration, the company will apply its AI-driven platform to accelerate the evaluation of new therapeutic approaches.
Through this combined AI-and-lab approach, Antiverse aims to improve antibody discovery efficiency for complex disease targets by enabling faster iteration between computational design and experimental validation.
The new funding will enable Antiverse to scale its AI-powered antibody discovery platform for pharmaceutical and foundation partners through collaborative programmes. It will also support the expansion of the company’s internal drug pipeline and advance lead antibody programmes toward in vivo efficacy studies.
Photo credit: Kevin Trimmer