Antiverse, a BioTech developing AI-designed therapeutic antibodies for undruggable disease targets, has closed a Series A round of £7 million.
The round was led by Soulmates Ventures with participation from Innovation Investment Capital, DOMiNO Ventures and existing investors DBW, Kadmos Capital and i&i Biotech Fund.
The Series A funding brings Antiverse’s total capital raised to over $20m and will enable the Cardiff company to scale its discovery platform for pharmaceutical and foundation partners through collaborative programmes.
Antiverse has entered into a research agreement with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to design novel antibodies targeting the extracellular region of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein, a historically difficult target in cystic fibrosis research.
The investment will also support expansion of its internal drug pipeline and advance lead antibody programmes toward in vivo efficacy studies.
Backed by a team with expertise across AI and laboratory research, Antiverse uses machine learning to generate therapeutic antibody candidates for a given disease target, which are then built and tested in its own labs.
These antibodies are tested on proprietary cell models that show the target protein as it appears in the human body, helping researchers see which ones work in realistic conditions. The finished, therapeutic-strength antibodies are then readied for clinical testing.
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“Many biologically important targets have remained difficult to drug using conventional antibody discovery methods,” said Murat Tunaboylu, co-founder and CEO of Antiverse.
“This Series A financing enables us to scale our generative antibody design platform, accelerate our internal pipeline, and expand strategic collaborations such as our work with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, where our technology is applied to explore challenging targets like extracellular CFTR.
“Together, these efforts help inform future research efforts and allow Antiverse to continue advancing our own therapeutic programs for patients.”
Antiverse has secured partnership agreements with multiple top-20 global pharmaceutical companies, including Nxera.
The company is now looking to progress its first wholly owned candidates into later-stage preclinical development by 2027, while continuing to support pharmaceutical partners with antibody discovery programmes.
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