Recursion, the US based drug startup, raises $60 million Series B funding from VC Data Collective

Recursion, a drug discovery startup based out of US, has raised $60 million capital in a Series B funding round from the venture capital firm Data Collective. The startup uses machine learning to process and rapidly discover new drug treatments for diseases in a fraction of the time and cost. Recursion uses imaging of cells combined with machine learning to identify which drugs will work best without waiting years to go through trial and error. The firm takes a broader approach, sifting through possible chemical combinations for an average of eight diseases a week. It had earlier raised $20 million capital, taking the total capital raised till now to $80 million.

The founder and CEO of the startup commented that “It’s the inverse of what the industry typically does. They spend a lot of time upfront trying to understand the disease and then two to three years down the road they look to see if they have a compound that might work. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t”. Though identifying possible compounds is just the first part, Recursion will still need to take those drugs through clinical trial. The CEO further added that “It’s in a crowded industry with a lot of competition from bigger drug makers. But, Recursion owns all the data it uses and there are thousands of diseases still out there without a treatment so the opportunity is wide”.