Exazyme secures €2 million in funding for AI-assisted protein development

The Berlin-based start-up Exazyme has won over two renowned venture capitalists, AIX Ventures and Atlantic Labs, and received €2 million in seed capital. On the one hand, this highlights the trend towards protein development using artificial intelligence and, on the other, the high potential of Exazyme and the technology developed there.

Conventional protein development is complex and time-consuming

Until now, protein development has been a complex, costly and extremely lengthy process that has applications in a 100-billion-euro market – such as biotechnology, medicine, agriculture, pharmaceuticals and chemistry.

Exazyme uses AI to identify optimal proteins

Exazyme’s revolutionary AI-based solution enables the company to quickly identify the best option for any application from billions of possible proteins. The AI is trained with datasets to predict the properties of new protein variants. This can be used, for example, to identify proteins that catalyze reactions particularly quickly or operate at high temperatures.

Exceptional results with Exazyme’s proteins

Exazyme’s AI-powered approach can significantly reduce the number of experiments required and increase protein performance compared to the current state of the art. Exazyme’s engineered proteins achieve performance far beyond that of the previous standard Directed Evolution method – a method that earned Frances Arnold the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Exazyme is already successfully collaborating with several universities and recording initial successes in various industries. Dr. Ingmar Schuster, co-founder and CEO of Exazyme: “Our technology already works with very small data sets. It motivates us to be at the forefront of developing applications in significant areas of industrial sustainability and health. We’re going to see an explosion of opportunity in chemical development like we’ve seen in computer technology in the last century.”

Richard Socher, renowned German AI expert in the U.S., advisor to the German government and founding partner of AIX Ventures, said, “AIX Ventures is pleased to support Exazyme as the company addresses a huge opportunity with a rather unique approach to machine learning. We believe that the combination of deep expertise in biochemistry and cutting-edge algorithms will enable the company to deliver outstanding protein engineering solutions in a very short period of time. I look forward to being part of their mission.”

Christophe Maire, founder of Atlantic Labs, added, “As an advocate of bio-based companies and their potential to combat climate change, I was very interested in adding Exazyme to our portfolio. We see immense potential for the company to transform the protein development market with its product, which will ultimately elevate the entire biotech sector.”

AI-powered protein design

Protein design aims to develop proteins (proteins) for use as biocatalysts or antibodies. This is done either on a computer using artificial intelligence or through very time-consuming and costly manual individual experiments. An optimized computer model can replace many experiments and often achieve higher protein performances.

About Exazyme

Berlin-based Exazyme was founded in 2022 by Dr. Ingmar Schuster, Philipp Markert and Dr. Jelena Ivanovska. With its web-based platform, the start-up supports its customers in optimizing proteins faster, more cost-efficiently and more effectively. For more information, visit exazyme.com.

About AIX Ventures

AIX Ventures is a venture capital fund that invests in artificial intelligence startups. AIX Ventures was founded in 2021 by Richard Socher (founder of You.com and former Chief Scientist at Salesforce), Suchi Saria (professor at John Hopkins University and founder of Bayesian Health), Pieter Abbeel (professor at UC Berkeley), Anthony Goldbloom (former CEO of Kaggle), and Chris Manning (professor at Stanford University). AIX Ventures supports pre-seed and seed stage companies that use AI to create value in a variety of areas including healthcare, future of work, AI/machine learning, mobility, and industrial automation. For more information, visit aixventures.com.

About Atlantic Labs

Atlantic Labs supports and invests in founders working on transformative technology companies. Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, Atlantic Labs works with founders early on to provide them with the capital, tools, and network needed to grow their companies and guide them on their entrepreneurial journey. Atlantic Labs is currently active in Digital Health, Biotech, AI/Machine Learning, Mobility, Industrial Automation and FoodTech, among others. For more information, visit atlanticlabs.com.