Enveda recently raised a $55 million Series B extension from investors including Microsoft, The Nature Conservancy, Premji Invest, and Lingotto Investment Fund, bringing the company’s total capital to $230 million. The company plans to raise a Series C later this year after the start of clinical trials. While other companies are focusing on cannabis and psychedelics, Enveda is studying a broader range of plants, leveraging the rich chemical diversity of the natural world.
Key takeaways:
- Enveda Biosciences, a biotech company, uses AI to analyze plant chemistry and discover potential medicines. The company's database has 38,000 medicinal plants linked to about 12,000 diseases and symptoms.
- Enveda's AI model not only identifies plants with the highest likelihood of providing cures but also deciphers the "chemical language" of the entire sample, allowing for more efficient prioritization of molecules for medicinal use.
- Two of Enveda's drugs, one for treating eczema and the other for inflammatory bowel diseases, are expected to begin clinical trials later this year. The company has raised a $55 million Series B extension from investors, bringing its total capital to $230 million.
- While many companies are focused on studying compounds from cannabis and psychedelics, Enveda is focusing on the wider natural world, which founder Viswa Colluru says is rich in chemical diversity and biological effects.