Enveda Doubles Valuation to $2 Billion in Series E Round
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Enveda Doubles Valuation to $2 Billion in Series E Round
Catalio Capital led the $311 million financing, and Enveda has now raised more than $845 million since 2019 without an FDA-approved drug to show for it.
Enveda Biosciences raised $311 million in a Series E round that doubles its valuation to $2 billion, up from $1 billion a year earlier, the Boulder, Colorado, biotech said Sept. 23.
The financing was disclosed in a press release distributed through BusinessWire and confirmed the same day by TechCrunch and Fierce Biotech. Catalio Capital Management led the round.
New money joins existing backers
New investors Durable Capital Partners, ICONIQ, Lightspeed, Surveyor Capital, a Citadel company, and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Investment Management joined existing backers Baillie Gifford, Premji Invest and Lux Capital, Enveda said. The round brings the company's total capital raised since its 2019 founding to more than $845 million.
Three candidates, none past Phase 1
Enveda's Prism platform uses AI to analyze the chemistry of compounds made by plants, microbes and other organisms, and has produced 17 development candidates since 2019, three of which are now in human testing, according to the company. ENV-294, an oral candidate for atopic dermatitis, has completed a Phase 1b trial. ENV-308, aimed at sustaining weight loss after patients stop taking GLP-1 drugs, has completed Phase 1. ENV-6946, for inflammatory bowel disease, has begun Phase 1, Enveda said.
What Enveda didn't say
None of the three candidates has reached a registrational trial, the stage that supports an FDA approval filing. TechCrunch's report on the round said "AI hasn't yet produced any FDA-approved drugs," a gap Enveda's new proceeds are meant to help close by pushing ENV-294 and ENV-308 into later-stage studies. Enveda did not disclose how much of the $311 million is earmarked for clinical trials versus platform development, or a target date for starting a registrational trial.
"Two novel molecules from that approach have now shown their early potential in people," said Viswa Colluru, Enveda's founder and chief executive, in the Sept. 23 announcement. George Petrocheilos, a Catalio managing partner joining Enveda's board, said the company's "three ongoing clinical trials validate the platform and prove repeatable pipeline creation."
Software growth versus clinical data
The doubling puts Enveda's valuation growth behind two other rounds disclosed this same week: Ema's $77 million Series B, whose valuation quadrupled over a comparable stretch, and Tekever's $580 million Series D, which valued the drone maker at $6.4 billion. Enveda's percentage gain is smaller than Ema's, but it is being priced against early clinical trial results rather than software adoption or defense contracts, a different kind of evidence for a similar level of investor appetite.
Enveda has not set a date for when ENV-294 or ENV-308 might enter a registrational trial. That filing, not Wednesday's valuation, is the number that will actually test whether Prism's AI-discovered candidates work as medicines.
| Candidate | Indication | Trial stage |
|---|---|---|
| ENV-294 | Atopic dermatitis | Phase 1b complete |
| ENV-308 | Weight-loss maintenance after GLP-1 | Phase 1 complete |
| ENV-6946 | Inflammatory bowel disease | Phase 1 initiated |
Sources
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