A University of Toronto startup using artificial intelligence to speed drug discovery has raised US$45 million to fund growth – yet another example of how efforts to commercialize the university’s AI expertise are making waves in the business world.
San Francisco-based Atomwise, which helps screen millions of potential drug candidates in a fraction of the time of traditional methods, said this week its latest funding round was led by Monsanto Growth Ventures, Data Collective (DCVC) and B Capital Group.
That brings the total amount of capital Atomwise has raised to more than US$51 million.
“With our initial work in 2012, Atomwise became the first startup to commercialize deep neural networks for drug discovery,” Abraham Heifets, the company’s co-founder and chief executive, said in a statement.
“It seemed to many like science fiction then, but now in 2018 Atomwise has the commercial traction with a host of customers to demonstrate our leadership in AI for drug discovery.”
Source: U of T startup raises US$45 million to build AI-powered drug discovery business
