PharmEnable raises £1.8m in a seed round led by Cambridge Enterprise to expand drug discovery operations.
The oversubscribed round was led by Cambridge Enterprise and will fund the company's transition into drug development.
PharmEnable is a biotechnology company based in Cambridge that develops targeted small molecule drugs using an proprietary platform combining medicinal chemistry and artificial intelligence. The firm focuses on challenging biological targets in oncology and neurology.
PharmEnable has secured £1.8m in a seed financing round led by Cambridge Enterprise, alongside participation from a syndicate of angel investors and life science funds. The oversubscribed round will enable the spin-out to transition into a drug development company and advance its proprietary discovery platform.
Funds will be directed toward building an in-house pipeline of drug discovery programmes targeting conditions such as cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. Additionally, the company plans to pursue strategic partnerships across the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors while expanding its scientific team.
From the founder
"We are pleased to welcome on board our new investors and appreciate their confidence in our business. Our aim is to replicate the specificity of biologics in the powerful and scalable form of a small molecule, to treat devastating diseases where there are currently no treatment options. We have proven the strength of our platform in tapping unexplored parts of the chemical universe to find novel and specific hits for currently undruggable targets, and are excited to now be able to invest in our own pipeline of drug discovery programmes, as well as to develop further strategic partnerships."
Hannah Sore
CEO at PharmEnable
Investor perspective
"Cambridge Enterprise is really pleased to be investing in this exciting opportunity. To have closed the round during these last few months, and to have attracted such a strong investor syndicate, is a testament to the potential of the AI-enabled platform that PharmEnable has built. We are pleased to support the Company in its transition to in-house drug discovery. We believe the company will have significant impact through addressing undruggable therapeutic targets."
Christine Martin
Head of Seed Funds, Cambridge Enterprise
Use of funds
- 01Grow the team
- 02Fund research and development
Investors
Christine Martin
Cambridge Enterprise
University of Cambridge Enterprise Fund VI
Jonathan Milner
Andy Richards
David Ford
Paul Forster
Ian Tomlinson
KQ Labs at the Francis Crick Institute
Martlet
Wren Capital