On August 29, 2024 Noetik, an AI-native biotech company leveraging self-supervised machine learning and high-throughput spatial data to develop next-generation cancer therapeutics, reported that it closed an oversubscribed $40 million Series A financing round (Press release, Noetik AI, AUG 29, 2024, View Source [SID1234646219]).

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The financing was led by Polaris Partners and managing partner Amy Schulman, who will join the board of directors, with participation from new investors Khosla Ventures, Wittington Ventures and Breakout Ventures. The round was supported by all existing investors DCVC, Zetta Venture Partners, Catalio Capital Management, 11.2 Capital, Epic Ventures, Intermountain Ventures and North South Ventures. The round also included AI funds ApSTAT Technologies, Linearis Labs and Ventures Fund, supported by leading AI expert Yoshua Bengio and metabolomic expert David Wishart, Element AI co-founder Jean-Francois Gagne, and current and former Recursion executives.

Funds from the Series A financing will be used to expand Noetik’s spatial omics-based atlas of human cancer biology (already one of the world’s largest) together with its high throughput in vivo CRISPR Perturb-Map platform. Additionally, the investment will enable the company to scale training of its multi-modal cancer foundation models such as OCTO. The company will leverage these platform capabilities to advance an innovative pipeline of cancer therapeutics candidates to the clinic.

"We are thrilled to have the support of incredible investors who share our vision of combining deep patient data and artificial intelligence to build the future of cancer therapeutics. This significant financing will enable us to accelerate our progress toward turning biological insights into a portfolio of therapeutic candidates" said Ron Alfa, M.D., Ph.D., CEO & Co-Founder, Noetik.

Noetik was founded to solve critically important challenges in bringing effective new therapeutics to patients: improving target discovery and biomarker development to increase the probability of clinical success. To address these, the company has built a discovery and development platform that pairs human multimodal spatial omics data purpose-built for machine learning with a massively multiplexed in vivo CRISPR perturbation platform (Perturb-Map). Together these data are used to train self-supervised foundation models of tissue and tumor biology that power the company’s discovery efforts.

"We are excited to partner with Noetik and support their mission to build a pipeline of potentially transformative cancer programs," said Amy Schulman, Managing Partner, Polaris Partners. "We have been investing in the most innovative life science technologies for decades and have been excited about the potential of AI. Noetik impressed us both with the sophistication of their platform and the team’s dedication to make an impact for patients."

The company aims to establish strategic partnerships and collaborations with leading academic institutions, health care providers, and pharmaceutical companies. The company recently appointed Shafique Virani, M.D. as the company’s Chief Business Officer to spearhead these partnering efforts.

"We are thrilled to continue backing Noetik. The team’s speed of execution in building one of the most sophisticated AI-enabled oncology discovery engines in less than two years is unprecedented, and their deep experience and demonstrable progress have only strengthened our conviction," said James Hardiman, General Partner, DCVC.

Noetik is committed to advancing the field of precision oncology and improving outcomes for cancer patients worldwide. This Series A funding marks a significant milestone in the company’s journey and reinforces its position as a leader in the development of AI-driven cancer therapies.

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