Noetik, an AI drug discovery company based in San Francisco, California, has raised $14 million in seed funding. The round was led by DCVC, with participation from Zetta Venture Partners, 11.2 Capital, Catalio Capital Management, Epic Ventures, Intermountain Ventures, North South Ventures, Chau Khuong and CJNV BioVentures, Enveda Founder and CEO Viswa Colluru, Hummingbird Nomads Fund, and Recursion CEO & CFO Chris Gibson and Michael Secora.
The company will use the funds to support its internal data generation efforts and the continued development of transformer-based machine learning methods. It will also use the funds to expand its team in machine learning, computational biology, and cancer immunology. Noetik was founded by Ron Alfa, M.D., Ph.D., and Jacob Rinaldi, Ph.D., who are both experts in the field of cancer immunology. The company has built a multimodal tissue profiling platform that combines self-supervised learning with spatial biology. This platform allows Noetik to generate human data across a data stack that includes genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics. This data can then be used to develop foundation models for cell and tissue biology, which can be used to accelerate the discovery of new cancer immunotherapies.
Noetik's founding leadership team also includes Lacey Padron, Ph.D., who is the Chief Technical Officer. Padron was previously the VP Informatics at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, where she focused on using integrated multiomic data analysis to uncover biomarkers, mechanisms of action, and novel therapies from cancer immunotherapy patient data. She also led the development of a best-in-class data platform to store, integrate, and analyze data from 20+ molecular data types with detailed clinical outcomes and annotation.
Noetik's technology has the potential to revolutionize the field of cancer immunotherapy. The company is well-positioned to make significant progress in this area, and the recent funding will help it to accelerate its development.
