Biotech startup immunitoAI raises $1 million in seed funding : Tech News

Biotech startup immunitoAI today announced that it has raised $1 million in seed funding.

The funding round was led by pi Ventures, with existing investor Entrepreneur First also participating.

The company provides services to pharmaceutical companies that use artificial intelligence to discover and identify antibodies. Antibody therapy uses synthetic version of the body’s antibodies that are supposed to help treat diseases such as cancer and autoimmune disorders.

This purportedly helps with the treatment of diseases such as cancer and autoimmune disorders.

The funds raised by the startup will be deployed for product development and industry partnerships.

ImmunitoAI was founded in November last year by Aridni Shah and Trisha Chatterjee.

Shah has a PhD in biological sciences from the National Centre of Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and has previously worked in the area of immunoassays and molecular techniques. Chatterjee holds an MSc in Computer Science from Delhi University, and has worked with startups on artificial intelligence.

The company in its press release said that antibodies have shown a lot of promise as a candidate for targeted therapy as they bind specifically to their targets. This enables them to reduce/eliminate side-effects caused by the current treatment methods for diseases like cancer and autoimmune disorders.

The company said that its platform of AI-powered software has the potential to improve efficiency of the current methods and reduce antibody discovery process time and cost by more than 50%. While the focus is on antibody screening and improvement in the short term, the company plans to develop its own antibody candidates in the mid and long term.

Aridni Shah, chief executive, immunitoAI, said, “Integration of AI with Biology has become a reality today. Biology has always been difficult to study and understand, but with the use of AI, we have started to bridge the gaps and what was thought to be impossible earlier has become possible. Our vision is to make antibody therapy a norm with the help of our technology. We plan on using this seed funding to develop our AI products and validate the predictions through biological experiments.”

Commenting on the investment, Roopan Aulakh, managing director, pi Ventures said “Our focus at pi has been to invest in startups that are revolutionizing industries using disruptive technology. This thesis is well reflected in immunitoAI, our first investment from our recently launched Fund II. The company’s AI led platform will make antibody discovery process faster and cheaper, enabling targeted therapy for multiple diseases.”