Antiverse has raised $9.3 million in a Series A round led by Soulmates Ventures, with participation from Innovation Investment Capital, DOMiNO Ventures, and existing backers DBW, Kadmos Capital, and i&i Biotech Fund. The new round brings the Cardiff based company’s total funding to more than $20 million since launch.

The capital will help expand Antiverse’s proprietary AI antibody design platform and move its lead programs closer to in vivo efficacy studies. At the same time, the company plans to deepen pharmaceutical and research collaborations as it builds out its internal pipeline.

A Clear Bet on Hard to Drug Targets

Antiverse focuses on disease targets that have long resisted conventional antibody discovery methods. Its work centers on areas such as G protein coupled receptors and ion channels, both widely recognized as difficult to address with traditional tools.

Alongside the funding, the company announced a research agreement with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The collaboration aims to design novel antibodies targeting the extracellular region of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator protein, or CFTR, a target that has proven particularly difficult in cystic fibrosis research.

Cystic fibrosis is a progressive genetic disease caused by mutations in the CFTR gene, leading to impaired chloride transport and thick mucus buildup in the lungs and other organs. The extracellular portion of CFTR has remained hard to access using standard antibody technologies, limiting research progress.

Under the agreement, Antiverse will apply its AI driven modelling and optimisation platform to generate antibody candidates. These will be screened and validated through its lab in the loop workflow, including hyper expressing cell line testing. Optimised antibodies will then be transferred to the Foundation’s lab for testing in natively expressing cell models. The goal is to support faster evaluation of emerging therapeutic approaches and help move promising research closer to patients.

“Many biologically important targets have remained difficult to drug using conventional antibody discovery methods. This Series A financing enables us to scale our generative antibody design platform, accelerate our internal pipeline, and expand strategic collaborations such as our work with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, where our technology is applied to explore challenging targets like extracellular CFTR. Together, these efforts help inform future research efforts and allow Antiverse to continue advancing our own therapeutic programs for patients.”

Murat Tunaboylu, Co-Founder and CEO, Antiverse.

Scaling an AI and Lab Driven Platform

The Series A funds will be directed toward scaling Antiverse’s generative antibody design system and advancing its wholly owned therapeutic programs. The company is working toward progressing its first internal candidates into later stage preclinical development by 2027.

Antiverse combines computational antibody design with programmable cell line engineering and in house laboratory validation. This integrated workflow allows iterative design, build, and testing within a single system. According to the company, it can reduce development time for de novo therapeutic grade antibodies in a defined domain to under four months.

“Antiverse is tackling one of the most technically demanding problems in drug discovery. The team’s ability to reduce the development time for de novo therapeutic-grade antibodies in a defined domain to under four months is a significant scientific and operational achievement. This capability, combined with the AI-driven design and in-house labs, positions Antiverse on track to become a global leader and the go-to developer of antibody therapies for the most elusive disease targets in medicine.”

Michal Sikyta, Managing Partner at Soulmates Ventures.

Building a Broader Pipeline and Partner Network

Founded in Cardiff, Wales, Antiverse is an AI driven techbio company focused on de novo antibody design. The company also operates offices in Boston and Prague. Its platform is built on seven years of generative model training across difficult targets, enabling the design of epitope specific antibodies while optimising key physicochemical properties and humanness.

Beyond its internal programs, Antiverse supports a range of collaboration models tailored to pharmaceutical, biotech, and foundation partners. It has secured partnership agreements with multiple top 20 global pharmaceutical companies and continues to expand its research footprint.

With fresh capital and a new collaboration focused on extracellular CFTR, Antiverse is positioning itself to move more candidates from early discovery into advanced preclinical stages over the coming years.

Origianl Creator: Paulo Palma
Original Link: https://justainews.com/companies/funding-news/antiverse-raises-9-3m-series-a-for-antibody-rd/
Originally Posted: Tue, 03 Mar 2026 17:09:34 +0000