ALLOX secures €10.5M seed round for AI drug discovery
Barcelona biotech ALLOX has raised €10.5 million in seed funding led by Asabys to scale its AI-driven platform for discovering drugs against difficult protein targets.
ALLOX has raised €10.5 million in a seed funding round. The Barcelona-based biotechnology company will use the capital to expand its experimental and AI-enabled drug discovery platform.
The financing was led by the venture capital firm Asabys through its Sabadell Asabys II fund. Public entities CDTI, the innovation agency of the Spanish Ministry of Science, and the Institut Català de Finances (ICF) also participated. Asabys manages over €400 million in assets and has 24 portfolio companies.
Leadership appointment
ALLOX has appointed Morten Graugaard as the Independent Chair of its Board of Directors. Graugaard brings over two decades of experience in life sciences investment, research, and business development.
He is a former Novo Holdings executive and was instrumental in building and scaling Orbis Medicines. In previous roles, Graugaard led the acquisition of Chelsea Therapeutics for $658 million and negotiated a $1.8 billion global alliance with Otsuka Pharmaceutical.
Platform capabilities
The company, a spin-out from the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), is developing a platform that combines high-throughput genetics, experimental biology, and artificial intelligence. The system aims to identify functional sites on proteins, such as allosteric and other regulatory sites, to unlock new therapeutic approaches.
This method targets difficult-to-drug protein-protein interactions. Relay Therapeutics and Gain Therapeutics are also active in the allosteric drug space. Júlia Domingo of Asabys stated the platform could "unlock a much broader range of challenging drug targets."
The platform's application extends beyond its initial focus areas. It can be applied across multiple therapeutic areas.
Use of funds
The new capital will support the scaling of the platform's capabilities and the development of proprietary AI models. It will also be used to strengthen the company's internal drug discovery team.
ALLOX has already initiated four drug discovery programmes. It has an asset called ALX-001, a selective allosteric inhibitor, in preclinical development. Company founders co-authored foundational papers on the platform's science in Nature in 2022 and 2023.
Morten Graugaard noted that "ALLOX fills a critical data gap." The funding follows a 2023 convertible loan provided to the company by Asabys. CDTI has disclosed three separate Innvierte investments in ALLOX. The financing will drive the expansion of a platform designed to reveal previously unexplored opportunities for small-molecule therapeutics.
