CellVoyant secures £7.6 million in funding for AI-driven biotechnology
CellVoyant, an AI-first biotechnology spin-out from the University of Bristol, has announced a £7.6 million seed round led by Octopus Ventures. The funding, which also saw participation from Horizons Ventures, Verve Ventures, and Air Street Capital, marks the first stage in commercializing CellVoyant’s AI and imaging platforms. The company aims to develop cost-effective and reliable cell therapies by leveraging stem cells’ potential to regenerate damaged tissues and organs.
Stem cells have already shown promising potential in treating chronic diseases like cancer and metabolic diseases such as diabetes and age-related macular degeneration.
Additionally, they could be used in the future to address currently untreatable conditions like dementia, fertility, and spinal cord injury. However, stem cell biology poses challenges in terms of scalability and predictability. Currently, a significant portion of cell therapy assets fail during development.
To overcome these challenges, CellVoyant employs patent-pending technology called FateView and FateCast, which combine advanced AI with live cell imaging. This platform allows scientists to extract real-time spatial and temporal information from complex cell mixtures, helping them understand cell composition and forecast their behavior with unprecedented precision. By finding optimal pathways for cell differentiation, the technology facilitates the development of cell therapies.
The funding will be used to bolster CellVoyant’s research and development capabilities, specifically through increasing headcount, expanding infrastructure, and supporting ongoing experiments. Founded in 2021, CellVoyant has already made significant progress in the field and secured a £2.2 million pre-seed round in December of the same year. With the latest funding, the company plans to double its team size over the next two years, hire experts in stem cells and machine learning, and focus on expanding its business development efforts.
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