Wednesday, September 10: Deep Knowledge Ventures’ flagship Longevity portfolio company Insilico Medicine has successfully closed its $37 million Series B funding round led by Qiming Venture Partners and joined by Eight Roads, F-Prime Capital, Lilly Asia Ventures, Sinovation Ventures, Baidu Ventures, Pavilion Capital, Bold Capital Partners, Longevity Vision Fund, Juvenescence and Oculus VR co-founder Michel Antonov according to the official press release. 

 

Deep Knowledge Ventures provided Insilico Medicine with seed funding in 2014, and has supported the company ever since. The company marked the fund’s inaugural investment in the Longevity and Artificial Intelligence industries, two frontier technology verticals that have become major priority areas for the fund since then in terms of both its core investment strategy as well as the scope of activities conducted by its Longevity and DeepTech-focused analytical subsidiaries, Aging Analytics Agency and Deep Knowledge Analytics.

Over the past five years, Insilico Medicine has come to be recognized as a world-leader in the application of AI for drug discovery and longevity research. It pioneered the application of advanced deep learning technologies including the Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) for the creation of synthetic biological data or target identification and for the design of new molecules with specific target properties, and recently manifested Pharma’s AlphaGo moment by succeeding to design a new drug from scratch in just 21 days and to synthesize and preclinically validate it in another 25 days, compared to 2-3 years using typical pharma industry approaches, documented in a landmark publication in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Biotechnology. They were the first company to apply GANs for drug discovery in 2016, and were awarded the 2018, Frost & Sullivan AI for Aging Research & Drug Development Innovation Award.

 

“Deep Knowledge Ventures has remained a supporter of Insilico Medicine’s journey to its current status as a global leader in the application of advanced AI for drug discovery and aging research. Insilico Medicine is one of our most promising portfolio companies, not only in terms of its potential ROI but also of its potential impact on serious problems facing humanity. Deep Knowledge Ventures continues to make the AI for Drug Discovery and Longevity sectors a major priority for its strategic agenda, and will soon be launching two new subsidiary funds specifically dedicated to these transformative verticals: AI-Pharma and Longevity.Capital, specialized hybrid investment funds that will use novel InvestTech solutions to combine the profitability of venture funds with the liquidity of hedge funds, significantly de-risking the interests of LPs and simultaneously providing the best and most promising AI and Longevity companies with a relevant amounts of investment.” said Margaretta Colangelo, Managing Partner of Deep Knowledge Ventures.

 

The Series B funding will be used to commercialize the validated generative chemistry and target identification technology. The company will also build up a senior management team with the experience in the pharmaceutical industry, further develop its pipeline in cancer, fibrosis, NASH, immunology and CNS for the purposes of partnering with the pharmaceutical companies on specific therapeutic programs. Insilico Medicine has developed and validated a comprehensive drug discovery pipeline which includes a state-of-the-art molecular generator utilizing multiple proprietary generative and reinforcement learning technologies. The company identified promising targets in a variety of therapeutic modalities including cancer, fibrosis, NASH, immunology and CNS. Through a network of joint ventures, partnerships with early-stage biotechnology and large pharmaceutical companies, Insilico Medicine is powering the new digital-age biopharmaceutical industry. 

 

“Deep Knowledge Ventures invested into Insilico Medicine in 2014 at a time when the AI for Drug Discovery and Longevity research was not yet recognized as a serious prospect by the overwhelming majority of investors. But our early choice to support Insilico Medicine has paid off many times over, and since then the company has become the #1 world leader in applying AI for aging research and pharma R&D. What is important about this B round is the prominence and strategic importance of the new investors. The relevance of this decision has now been validated by the subsequent participation of some of the biggest investment funds with expertise in the pharma and AI spheres, whereas its prospects in Longevity sector have been validated by the participation of such firms as Juvenescence, Bold Capital and Longevity Vision Fund. While Insilico Medicine’s leadership in the AI for Longevity and Drug Discovery has already been very well established, this new funding will allow their strengths and unique strategic advantages in these spheres to attain unprecedented heights. Our two recently-launched specialized hybrid investment subsidiary funds, AI-Pharma and Longevity.Capital, will serve to bring our journey as early investors in these two sectors full-circle, and will serve to multiply Deep Knowledge Ventures’ commitment to the power and potential of AI for Drug Discovery on the one hand, and Healthy Human Longevity on the other.” said Dmitry Kaminskiy, General Partner of Deep Knowledge Ventures.

 

About Deep Knowledge Ventures

Deep Knowledge Ventures is a leading investment fund focused on the synergetic convergence of DeepTech, frontier technologies and technological megatrends, known for its use of sophisticated analytical system for investment target identification and due-diligence. Major investment sectors include AI, Precision Medicine, Longevity, Blockchain and InvestTech. Deep Knowledge Ventures led Insilico Medicine’s seed funding round in 2014, and has remained a close advisor in the company’s journey towards becoming a global leader in the application of advanced AI for aging research and the extension of healthy human longevity. DKV has since formed a fund to focus exclusively on investments in the areas of Geroscience, Longevity research, AI for advanced bioscience. Deep Knowledge Ventures has launched two specialized hybrid investment subsidiary funds focused specifically on the Longevity and AI in Drug Discovery sectors, Longevity.Capital and AI-Pharma, which combine the profitability of venture funds with the liquidity of hedge funds, significantly de-risking the interests of LP’s and simultaneously providing the best and most promising Longevity and AI for Drug Discovery companies with relevant amounts of investment.