Exscientia raises £21.5m from BlackRock to support its artificial intelligence drug discovery platform
BlackRock joined the Series C round alongside existing investors to bring total financing to $100m.
Exscientia is a clinical stage pharmatech company that uses artificial intelligence to design patient based drugs. The company operates an automated platform to advance precision medicines from target identification to clinical trials.
Exscientia has secured a Series C follow on investment of £21.5m from BlackRock, bringing the company's total Series C financing round to $100m. The latest funding includes participation from existing backers Novo Holdings, Evotec, Bristol Myers Squibb, and GT Healthcare Capital.
The new capital will support the ongoing development of the company's autonomous drug design platform, expand its proprietary pipeline into clinical trials, and grow its biological analytics capabilities. William Abecassis from BlackRock will join the board as an observer following the transaction.
The Oxford based firm has expanded rapidly over the past year, doubling its headcount and establishing a presence in the United States. Its technology has advanced multiple candidates into clinical testing and preclinical evaluation.
From the founder
"We are delighted that BlackRock shares our vision for revolutionising how drugs are discovered. It is also recognition of the ingenuity and hard work of our employees to turn the promise of AI into reality today, where we are bringing the world’s first AI designed drugs into the clinic. BlackRock’s investment is an important step in our vision that all drugs will be designed by AI. I believe that our company’s reimagined approach to drug discovery will become the new de facto standard"
Andrew Hopkins
CEO at Exscientia
Investor perspective
"Exscientia is breaking ground in small molecule drug design, with a platform that radically improves drug discovery"
William Abecassis
Head of Innovation Capital, BlackRock
Use of funds
- 01Continue product development
- 02Fund research and development
Investors
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About the company
Exscientia
Exscientia builds artificial intelligence platforms to design and discover new medicines.