SAN DIEGO– Entos, Inc (“Entos” or “the Company”), the creator of a cutting-edge platform combining AI-driven technology and automated synthetic development to design small-molecule therapeutics, today announced the closing of a $53 million Series A financing round led by Coatue, a leading technology investment firm, and Catalio Capital Management, a leading biomedical technology investment firm, with participation from OrbiMed and Sequoia Capital as well as existing investors Nexus Ventures and Freeflow.
The funding round was oversubscribed and represents a unique combination of sophisticated technology and life-sciences investors. As part of the fundraise, Aaron Weiner, Managing Director and Head of Healthcare at Coatue, and R. Jacob Vogelstein, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Catalio, have joined Entos’ Board of Directors that includes Tom Miller, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Fred Manby, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, and Naren Gupta, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Nexus Venture Partners.
Traditional therapeutic discovery is highly complex and entails prolonged timelines, vast training data needs and sub-optimal accuracy. Entos is eradicating these challenges with its cutting-edge OrbNet platform, an AI-driven drug and development process that creates a thousand-fold acceleration in molecular properties prediction with 100x less training data required. Through the OrbNet platform, Entos has already achieved meaningful customer traction with a growing portfolio of partnerships with industry leaders in pharmaceuticals, chemicals and materials.
“We are tremendously excited to have the opportunity, resources and team to revolutionize drug design with breakthrough AI technologies and chemical innovation,” said Tom Miller, Entos Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. “We look forward to partnering with some of the strongest investors in both tech and life-sciences, and welcome Aaron and Jacob to our world-class Board of Directors.”
“Drug development is a highly complex endeavor that is plagued by both cost and time inefficiency, and we believe that incorporating Entos’ impressive technology into the process will result in faster timelines and vastly improved therapeutics,” said Aaron Weiner, Managing Director and Head of Healthcare at Coatue. “Tom and Fred lead a team steeped in quantum mechanics and chemistry that is working to rethink the process of drug development. We are proud to partner with them and the rest of growing Entos team as they continue to achieve increased customer traction and seek their goal of revolutionizing the drug discovery process.”
Entos’ growing team is comprised of renowned scientists and engineers with world-class expertise in machine learning and software development, as well as computational and medicinal chemistry. Earlier this year, Entos further strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of Tim Cernak as Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer and Sarah Trice as Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer. Dr. Cernak and Dr. Trice bring deep experience in drug development, high-throughput experimental, automated synthesis and medicinal chemistry software following extensive tenures at Merck. Entos is also supported by a star-studded Scientific Advisory Board that features prominent industry pioneers including Chemistry Nobel Prize winner Frances Arnold.
“There is a critical need for innovative drug design platforms that can rapidly deliver superior compounds to treat disease, and we can think of no group better suited than the Entos team to lead the industry into the future,” says Jacob Vogelstein, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Catalio. “We believe that Entos’ unique combination of algorithms, software, and wetware can generate the highest quality drug candidates at unprecedented speed and scale.”
With the funds raised, Entos will meaningfully accelerate the development of its OrbNet AI-platform, including integrating the technology with robotic synthesis and high-throughput experimentation. The funds will also support an aggressive hiring agenda aimed to further strengthen Entos’ deep bench of science and engineering talent. The Company’s new headquarters in San Diego’s centrally located UCSD Science Park featuring state-of-the-art laboratory and office workspaces is designed to support Entos’ rapidly growing software, chemistry and biology teams.
