Terray Therapeutics, a biotechnology company using artificial intelligence to speed up the development of small-molecule drugs, has raised $120 million in a Series B funding round. The round was led by new investor Bedford Ridge Capital and existing investor NVentures, Nvidia’s venture capital arm.
Terray’s co-founder and CEO, Jacob Berlin, Ph.D., noted that knowledge of what causes human disease has exploded in the ‘omics’ era, but the ability to discover and develop new molecules to treat those diseases hasn’t kept pace. He stated that Terray’s AI, trained on rapidly iterating, precise data generated at unprecedented scale in their labs, will dramatically improve the success rate of small-molecule development and bring relief to patients.
Small-molecule drugs are particularly sought after because of their low weight and simple chemical structures, making them more predictable for dosing and interactions. They can also be tailored to interact with RNA, opening up new opportunities for customizing drugs to handle diseases.
Kimberly Powell, the vice president of healthcare at Nvidia, praised Terray’s unique, high-quality data generation, which enables continuous advanced generative AI development, like their COATI models. She stated that rapid experiments combined with advanced AI creates a molecule discovery and design flywheel able to take on the most difficult and yet to be discovered targets.
With the new funding, Terray plans to expand its tNova platform and progress internal immunology programs using small-molecule drugs toward clinical trials, all involving AI-driven optimization chemistry. The company has also partnered with Bristol Myers Squibb and Alphabet’s Calico Life Sciences to target a range of conditions.
The investor from Bedford Ridge Capital believes that Terray Therapeutics’ experimental platform, including their generative AI model tNova, has the potential to revolutionize small-molecule drug development.
The investor highlighted two key reasons for this:
-
Terray is leveraging its vast chemistry dataset - the world’s largest, with over 5 billion target-ligand interactions. This provides a strong foundation for their AI models to learn from.
-
Terray’s cutting-edge AI capabilities, exemplified by tNova, allow the company to dramatically improve the success rate and efficiency of small-molecule drug discovery and development.
The investor expressed confidence that by combining Terray’s extensive data and advanced AI, the company is poised to transform this critical area of pharmaceutical research. The investor sees Terray’s platform as having the potential to revolutionize how small-molecule drugs are developed going forward.
As the biotechnology industry continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible in drug discovery and development, companies like Terray Therapeutics are at the forefront of this transformation. With its innovative AI-powered approach and strong financial backing, Terray is well-positioned to make a significant impact on the future of small-molecule therapeutics and the lives of patients in need.