Envisagenics Raises Series A Financing to Scale
its AI-powered RNA Splicing Drug Discovery Platform
Envisagenics’ co-founder and CEO, Maria Luisa Pineda, PhD., said that the minority and woman-led biotech company plans to scale partnerships with biopharmaceutical companies “to accelerate the development of highly specific therapeutics that modulate RNA splicing events that drive pathogenesis of oncology, neurodegenerative, and metabolic disorders.”
Envisagenics’ research and development focuses on diseases that are caused in part by RNA splicing deregulation and have patient populations with significant unmet needs. Its principal proprietary technology, the SpliceCore® discovery platform, re-envisions the human genome through the lens of a validated, exon-centric approach combined with Machine Learning algorithms and high-performance computing. SpliceCore’s database is composed of approximately seven million RNA splicing events, making it one of the largest databases of potential disease-specific RNA targets in the world. Envisagenics’ SpliceCore technology has been commercially validated by multiple biopharma leaders. On September 21, Envisagenics was featured in Biogen’s Investor R&D Day to highlight its partnership with Envisagenics to advance RNA splicing research in CNS diseases.
Martin Akerman, Ph.D., co-founder and CTO of Envisagenics, said, “Since the founding of Envisagenics, we have been building the SpliceCore platform to drive innovation and discovery of splicing-based therapies. The software platform now has the capacity to analyze thousands of RNA sequencing samples to identify the right target for therapeutic development, and we expect this investment to radically accelerate our vision to become a world leader in the AI drug discovery industry.”
“Envisagenics offers unparalleled insights into RNA splicing that can only come from its team of splicing experts who have more than 15 years of experience and the most innovative discovery platform in the industry. Given the successful application of mRNA in Covid vaccines, we are thrilled at the prospect of leveraging advances in RNA splicing to accelerate drug discovery and the average time it will take to bring new treatments to market,” said Grant Verstandig, co-founder of Red Cell Partners. “Envisagenics embodies Red Cell’s mission to back, build and scale technology-led companies with the power to transform the healthcare industry. We are proud to lead this financing round in support of Envisagenics’ vision to find effective therapeutics for widespread and rare diseases.”
Grant Verstandig and Alan S. Roemer will join Maria Luisa Pineda and Martin Akerman on Envisagenics’ Board of Directors.
04/10/2021
“With this Series B and the arrival of Frederic, TreeFrog Therapeutics enters a new dimension. Frederic brings in over 25 years of experience in managing fast-growing teams in biotech and pharma companies, both in France and in the U.S. We are now supported by investors with several billion dollars under management, as well as by a top-ten pharmaceutical company that successfully pioneered CAR-T cell therapies.” said Kevin Alessandri, PhD, co-founder and executive vice president USA, TreeFrog Therapeutics. “In short, funding, management and governance are now secured, as we embark on a very exciting journey, with the deployment of technological hubs in Kobe, Japan, and Boston, MA, and the prospect of treating our first patients in 2024.”
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