Series A19 May 2022

Oxford Drug Design raises £2.2m from ACF Investors and others to advance oncology drug discovery.

The financing round was backed by ACF Investors, o2h Ventures, Jonathan Milner, and R42 Group.

£2.2MSeries A

Oxford Drug Design is a biotechnology company that uses a proprietary computational and machine learning platform to discover small-molecule drugs for oncology. The firm originated as a spinout from Oxford University.

Oxford Drug Design has secured £2.2m in funding to advance its computational drug discovery platform and support its oncology research programmes. The investment was backed by returning backers alongside new participants, including R42 Group and ACF Investors.

The fresh capital will be directed towards a proof-of-concept study validating the firm's cancer treatment approach, alongside establishing a commercial offering for its AI platform. The company also intends to allocate resources towards operations and team expansion.

This latest injection follows previous grant and equity funding, bringing the organisation's total raised to over £10m. The business continues to focus on addressing unmet therapeutic needs in lung and colorectal cancers.

From the founder

"This latest funding will enable us to build on and accelerate our successful computational design-led discovery focus. We are excited to be playing a pivotal role in the innovation of oncological treatments leading to better outcomes for cancer patients worldwide. Our groundbreaking new approach stands to be initially validated by the proof-of-concept studies. We are achieving rapid progress not only with our industry-leading drug discovery programme, but also our proprietary AI platform. This has led to increasing interest from third parties in our machine learning capabilities, so we are keen to capitalise on this demand and establish a commercial effort in this area"

Alan Roth

CEO at Oxford Drug Design

Investor perspective

"The team at Oxford Drug Design have created a pioneering platform that is enabling truly innovative drug discovery. It is exciting to see them initiating their proof-of-concept study. It is additionally no surprise that companies operating in the space have identified the opportunity of using its proprietary machine learning technology. We are delighted to continue to support ODD – It is a testament to the strength of the company’s technology and team that all of the existing investors and angels have participated in this follow-on round, which will supercharge their expansion globally and enable key strategic hires."

Tim Mills

Managing Partner, ACF Investors