Iktos, a Paris, France-based company specializing in artificial intelligence for new drug discovery, announced that it closed €15.5 million in Series A financing.
The round was co-led by new investors M Ventures and Debiopharm Innovation Fund, with participation from Omnes Capital.
This funding will enable Iktos to expand its AI technology platform and launch Iktos Robotics; an AI-driven automated end-to-end drug discovery service.
Within the financing, Iktos will additionally extend the application of its solutions to biological products (peptides, antibodies, etc.). This allows Iktos to be one of the first companies to offer fully integrated drug discovery services to the pharmaceutical industry.
Yann Gaston-Mathé, President and co-founder of Iktos, said: "The search for new drug matter is still a laborious and uncertain quest of exploring a chemical universe composed of virtually infinite number of potential molecules. The application of artificial intelligence to early drug discovery and design offers the possibility of a radical change for researchers exploring such chemical universe. The technologies we have developed have been enabling multiple partners in realizing this promise. We welcome our new, experienced, investor syndicate and fresh financing that will allow us to execute our plan of being the preferred partner for the industry to address their drug development needs."
Iktos' artificial intelligence solutions are designed to significantly accelerate the drug discovery process while increasing the likelihood of drug candidates reaching clinical development success.
This approach is already validated by Iktos through more than 50 academic and industrial collaborations, with multiple pharmaceutical and biotech companies, such as Janssen, Merck, Pfizer, Servier, Ono, and Teijin to name only a few.
Company: Iktos S.A.S.
Raised: €15.5
Round: Series A
Funding Month: March 2023
Lead Investors: M Ventures and Debiopharm Innovation Fund
Additional Investors: Omnes Capital
Company Website: https://iktos.ai/
Software Category: AI Drug Discovery
About the Company: Iktos is a French start-up specializing in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions applied to chemical research, more specifically to medicinal chemistry and new drug design. Iktos develops a proprietary and innovative solution based on generative deep learning models, which allows, from existing data, to design optimized molecules in silico to meet all the success criteria of a small molecule discovery project. The use of the Iktos technology platform enables major productivity gains in upstream pharmaceutical R&D. Iktos offers its technology both as professional services and as a SaaS software platform, Makya™. Iktos also develops Spaya™, a synthesis planning software based on Iktos' proprietary AI technology for retrosynthesis. Iktos has already validated its technology through more than 50 collaborations with pharmaceutical and biotech companies such as Chiesi Group, Galapagos, Janssen, Merck, Teijin, Ono Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Servier, and UCB.
Source: https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/iktos-raises--15-5m-series-a-round-to-expand-its-artificial-intelligence-based-drug-discovery-technologies-and-solutions-301766298.html