Cardiff-based Antiverse secures €4.2 million to advance generative AI antibody design | EU-Startups

Antiverse, a techbio company designing antibodies for challenging targets, has announced the successful closure of €4.2 million seed funding round. This latest investment brings the company’s total equity financing to €8.6 million, marking a significant step in its mission to revolutionize antibody design using generative AI technology.

The round was led by i&i Biotech Fund I (i&i Bio) and Kadmos Capital, with contributions from existing investors such as InnoSpark Ventures, UKI2S (managed by Future Planet Capital), Tensor Ventures, and AngelHub. This funding will accelerate Antiverse’s development of its AI-driven antibody platform, expand its laboratory and machine learning teams, and drive internal assets targeting G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and ion channels toward clinical trials.

Antiverse’s unique platform leverages machine learning to design antibodies for challenging drug targets, including GPCRs and ion channels, which are notoriously difficult to address. The company’s approach uses ‘target-specific libraries’ that rely on structural and sequence data to generate highly accurate predictions. This enables faster and more precise antibody discovery, reducing the process to just six months.

In addition to accelerating internal projects, the new investment will enhance ongoing collaborations with leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Antiverse has also expanded its operations with new facilities in Boston, MA, and Prague, Czech Republic, providing additional capacity to deliver its growing pipeline of projects.

“A third of all FDA-approved drugs target GPCRs, yet, despite decades of research and billions of funding, only a few GPCR-targeting antibodies exist. Thanks to the support of our investors, we are one step closer to making GPCRs and other challenging targets druggable, bringing needed therapies to patients across the globe,” said Murat Tunaboylu, Co-Founder and CEO of Antiverse.

Jaromir Zahradka, CEO of i&i Bio, expressed his excitement about the partnership, stating, “Antiverse has made significant progress in the field of antibody design. Antiverse’s mission to make GPCRs druggable focuses on a key issue and we are pleased to be supporting them.”

John Gebeily, Operating Partner at Kadmos Capital, added: “Antiverse’s AI-driven antibody design platform demonstrates significant potential in advancing the development of novel antibody therapeutics, particularly for complex drug targets. We’re excited to support Murat and his team.”

With the fresh infusion of capital and strategic expansion, Antiverse is well-positioned to continue its mission of designing the next generation of antibody therapies, transforming how challenging diseases are treated globally.