Exscientia secures £162m Series D funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2
The financing was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 with participation from Novo Holdings and Blackrock to expand the proprietary drug pipeline.
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.
Oxford based pharmatech firm Exscientia has completed a Series D financing round worth £162m, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The round also drew participation from previous lead investors Novo Holdings and funds managed by Blackrock, alongside several other institutional backers.
The capital will be deployed to advance the company's proprietary drug pipeline through clinical testing and further expand its technology platform towards autonomous drug design. In addition to the primary financing, SoftBank has provided an equity commitment of up to £216m available at the company's discretion.
Exscientia has pioneered the use of artificial intelligence in drug discovery, successfully advancing multiple fully AI designed molecules into clinical trials. The firm integrates biological data and algorithmic design to accelerate the creation of precision medicines.
From the founder
"All of our investors share Exscientia’s vision to discover better drugs, faster, through AI and automation. 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."
Andrew Hopkins
CEO at Exscientia
Investor perspective
"We believe Exscientia’s innovative use of AI to discover and design better quality drugs with greater efficiency has the potential to create important medicines faster than ever before. With the convergence of technology and biology, drug discovery is rapidly evolving in ways that will reshape the industry. The Exscientia team have been leaders in AI-based drug discovery since the field’s inception and we believe they will continue shaping its future."
Eric Chen
Managing Partner of SoftBank Investment Advisers, SoftBank Vision Fund
Use of funds
- 01Continue product development
- 02Fund research and development
Investors
Eric Chen
SoftBank Vision Fund
Novo Holdings
Blackrock
Mubadala Investment Company
Farallon Capital
Casdin Capital
GT Healthcare Capital
Marshall Wace
Pivotal bioVenture Partners
Laurion Capital
Hongkou
Bristol Myers Squibb
Categories
About the company
Exscientia
Exscientia builds artificial intelligence platforms to design and discover new medicines.