Excelsior Sciences has announced that it has raised $95m to accelerate its mission to reinvent the process of discovering and manufacturing small molecules.
The financing includes a $70m Series A, co-led by Deerfield Management, Khosla Ventures and Sofinnova Partners, as well as a $25m grant from New York’s Empire State Development.
Other participants include Cornucopian Capital, Eli Lilly and Company, Illinois Ventures and the leading academic institution, MIT.
A novel approach for small molecule science
Small molecules — the class of chemical matter primarily built from carbon-carbon bonds — perform countless essential functions in our lives. They are central to our life-saving drugs, manufacturing materials, veterinary and agricultural products and much more.
While AI has the potential to transform these fields, it requires the ability to make and test new small molecules in multiple assays fast enough to feed data-hungry algorithms.
Earlier attempts to automate chemistry have failed as they replicate the traditional artisanal approach to chemical synthesis.
However, Excelsior Sciences has created a proprietary form of chemistry that machines can do.
At the heart of this innovation are smart bloccs — automated synthesis-friendly chemical building blocks that enable iterative carbon-carbon bond formation.
Smart bloccs serve as a modular chemical “language,” allowing AI to derive novel insights and guide discovery in closed-loop learning systems.
“Drug discovery and manufacturing are at a crossroads in the West. To stay competitive, we must discover and develop better medicines faster."
"This can only be achieved through automated synthesis platforms capable of rapidly producing purified compounds and testing them across multiple assays simultaneously — generating the rich data AI needs to cut years off traditional discovery timelines,” said Dr Michael Foley, co-founder and CEO of Excelsior Sciences.
"Our proprietary smart bloccs platform is the first system to seamlessly integrate discovery and scale-up chemistry, enabling the reshoring of drug discovery and manufacturing."
"We are starting with drug discovery but will work across multiple sectors."
The reshoring imperative
Excelsior’s launch comes at a pivotal time for the pharmaceutical industry, which is under pressure to secure supply chains and reshore more of its discovery and manufacturing capabilities.
The United States’ overreliance on offshoring for the discovery and manufacturing of the nation’s drug supply represents a major strategic vulnerability — one the pharma industry is committing upwards of $250bn to address.
Excelsior Sciences aims to make reshoring affordable for both discovery and manufacturing, providing strategic immunity to nations whose pharma supply chains are vulnerable to sudden geopolitical shifts.
“The idea that sparked Excelsior arose via the company-building relationship Deerfield cultivated with Dr Marty Burke, whose lab at the University of Illinois discovered and patented the insights that power the smart blocc technology,” said Jim Flynn, Managing Partner at Deerfield.
"We view Excelsior’s applications to drug discovery and manufacturing as transformational and we are pleased to have attracted such strong syndicate partners to advance what we have begun."
Building the future of AI-powered chemistry
This Series A financing will support Excelsior as it scales its smart bloccs platform and demonstrates its ability to revolutionise the discovery and manufacture of small molecules.
Excelsior Sciences will also invest in its internal pipeline and build partnerships across a range of industry sectors, including therapeutics and materials science.
“Everyone’s talking about AI-designed drugs, but they cannot become a reality without scalable chemistry. Excelsior is the missing piece."
"They’ve built the right chemistry for the AI era, where design, synthesis and testing happen in a closed loop."
"It’s turning theory into tangible molecules and real medicine. That’s why we backed this exceptional team as part of the Sofinnova Digital Medicine strategy,” said Edward Kliphuis, Partner at Sofinnova Partners.
“Excelsior is closing the gap between what AI can model in theory and what chemistry can make in the real world,” said Nessan Bermingham of Khosla Ventures.
"Being able to manufacture small molecules this way opens the door to breakthroughs in new medicines and materials science and it’s a critically strategic capability to build here in the US."
Empire State Development President, CEO and Commissioner Hope Knight said, “Excelsior Sciences exemplifies how New York continues to attract companies redefining the frontiers of life sciences."
"Their technology will help address one of the most pressing challenges in American pharmaceutical manufacturing — securing domestic drug supply chains — while establishing our state as a leader in AI-powered chemistry and advanced manufacturing."
"Empire State Development is proud to support their work as they help shape the future of scientific discovery and production in New York."