Israeli AI-powered drug discovery company Protai today announced the completion of an $8 million seed financing round co-led by Grove Ventures and Pitango HealthTech.
The company said that the new investment will be used to develop its platform, accelerate its discovery programs and enhance partnerships with pharmaceutical companies.
Protai, which was only founded last year, has built an end-to-end AI-based platform that comprehensively maps the course of a disease on the protein level, enhancing the ability to observe cellular function and thereby improving the way new drugs are discovered. This approach allows Protai to increase accuracy in drug discovery and improve the development process, substantially saving time and lowering the costs of R&D.
Protai cofounder and CEO Eran Seger said, "Protai's platform is like a unique compass for directing drug discovery. We are systematically mapping diseases on the protein level to create an entirely new layer of functional information which enables us to identify therapeutic and diagnostic targets to better combat a wide range of complex diseases."
Protai claims to have created the world's largest and most diverse proteomic database with over 50,000 clinical samples by harmonizing large clinical datasets, as well as healthy samples from various organs and indications. This enables Protai to establish a baseline to then accurately simulate biological functional processes for a variety of diseases and accelerate drug R&D through clinical and preclinical stages.