Drug Discovery Startup Unnatural Products Receives $6M in Seed Funding led by ARTIS Ventures

Santa Cruz, CA, Sept. 17, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Unnatural Products, Inc. ("UNP"), a startup pairing AI with chemistry to create treatments for drug targets that aren’t amenable to our current therapeutic strategies, announced it has received more than $6 million in seed funding led by ARTIS Ventures. Other investors include Abstract Ventures, Asset Management Ventures, Better Ventures, Blue Bear Ventures, and Rising Tide Fund. The funds will be used to grow the team, continue platform development, and push forward the company’s pipeline of oncology programs.

“In many ways our understanding of human biology, particularly in the role of certain drivers of cancer, has outstripped our chemistry capabilities,” said Cameron Pye, CEO and co-founder of Unnatural Products, Inc. “At UNP, we're focused on one of nature's solutions to this problem, macrocycles, to expand our chemical toolbox. A lot of the high-hanging fruit in drug discovery has been called ‘undruggable,’ and we’re working to change that."

UNP has created a unique platform that closely marries prediction with experiment. This rapid, intelligent learning loop has allowed UNP to solve key challenges, such as cell permeability, that have previously been the roadblock in macrocycle development. Though currently focused on select oncology targets, this technology can be applied to a wide variety of urgent clinical needs such as inflammatory diseases.

“UNP's machine-led discovery of macrocycle drugs combined with their chemistry platform is a unique approach in the drug discovery space,” said Vasudev Bailey, PhD, partner at ARTIS Ventures. “This has the potential to hugely impact drug development with the ability to address the 80 percent of drug targets for which there are currently no therapeutic strategies.”

About Unnatural Products, Inc.

A startup focused on the “undruggable” space of intracellular protein interactions using macrocycles, Unnatural Products, Inc. is headquartered in Santa Cruz, California. For updates on what the company is doing and partnering opportunities contact them at contact@unnaturalproducts.com.

About ARTIS Ventures

ARTIS Ventures ("AV") partners with entrepreneurs who are driven to impact the world by reshaping and reinventing industries. The team supports its portfolio companies through their entire life-cycle, from initial venture investment to public offering and beyond. As an early leader in the emerging TechBio sector, ARTIS funds companies that sit at the intersection of computer science and life science, applying engineering principles and data-enabled discovery to the healthcare space. Notable companies the firm has backed include YouTube, Modern Meadow, Nimble Storage, StemCentrx, Palantir, IDbyDNA, Versa Networks, Cohesity, Locus Biosciences, and more. For more information visit www.av.co or email contact@av.co.