AI-powered drug discovery company Exscientia announced that it completed a $225 Series D funding round.
SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the funding round, while previous lead investors, Novo Holdings and funds managed by Blackrock, contributed. Other investors included Mubadala Investment Company, Farallon Capital, Casdin Capital, GT Healthcare Capital, Marshall Wace, Pivotal bioVenture Partners, Laurion Capital, Hongkou and Bristol-Myers Squibb, according to a news release.
Additionally, SoftBank is providing Exscientia with a further $300 million equity commitment available to be drawn by the Oxford, England-based company at its discretion.
Exscientia utilizes AI to engineer new medicines, with the technology working in target identification, drug design and patient selection. The company has put two fully AI-designed drugs into clinical trials and has more than 20 active programs in its pipeline.
The company plans to use the funds raised in the round to advance its proprietary pipeline through clinical testing while also expanding the technology platform toward autonomous drug design.
“All of our investors share Exscientia’s vision to discover better drugs, faster, through AI and automation,” Exscientia CEO Andrew Hopkins said in the release. “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.”