Biotech firm Enveda raises $311M to advance nature-derived AI drugs toward clinical trials
US biotech startup Enveda has closed a $311 million Series E funding round at a $2 billion valuation to continue developing AI-discovered drugs sourced from plants and microbes.
Biotech startup Enveda has completed a Series E funding round, raising $311 million and reaching a $2 billion valuation — twice what the company was valued at a year earlier.
The round was led by Catalio Capital Management, with additional participation from Iconiq and other investors.
Medicine from nature, not the lab
Enveda's core premise is that powerful medicines can be derived from plants and microbes rather than synthesized from scratch in a laboratory. The company was founded in 2019 by Viswa Colluru, an early employee of Recursion Pharmaceuticals, with the goal of using artificial intelligence and other techniques to speed up the discovery of such drugs.
Toward clinical trials
While no AI-discovered drug has yet received FDA approval, Enveda is among a group of companies pushing AI-identified drug candidates into human clinical trials. The company is currently testing several treatments, including one aimed at severe skin conditions and another designed to help patients maintain weight loss after discontinuing GLP-1 medications.
