Quris CEO Isaac Bentwich. (Photo Quris)
Quris, an Israeli startup that uses artificial intelligence (AI) for a pharmaceutical development platform secured an additional $9 million in seed funding – bringing its total seed round funding to $37 million. In January, Quris completed a $28 million round in seed funding led by Welltech Ventures. And fellow Israeli startup Nanosono, which has developed an antimicrobial platform, raised $2 million from the Gadot Group – no connection to Gal – and has brought in a total of $21 million to date.
Founded by CEO Isaac Bentwich and CTO Yossi Haran, Quris is an artificial intelligence innovator in drug development. Its machine-learning bio-platform predicts which drug candidates will safely work in humans, avoiding tremendous costs of failed clinical trials. Under the scientific leadership of experts like Nobel Laureate Aaron Ciechanover and Dr. Robert S. Langer, co-founder of Moderna, Quris uses AI-powered miniaturized “patients-on-a-chip” to avoid the enormous risks and costs associated with failed clinical trials and to eliminate the reliance on ineffective animal testing.
“We believe the early forecasting capability that Quris is developing brings real potential impact to the global pharmaceutical industry,” said Yossi Cohen, Director of Israel Operations for SoftBank Investment Advisers. ”Harnessing the novel application of AI, Dr. Bentwich and his team could save the enormous costs of drugs failing in clinical trials, and in doing so create a business in Israel of significant economic value.”
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Since launching its clinical prediction AI platform late last year, Quris has focused on expanding its industry collaborations and prepping the first drug developed on the platform, addressing Fragile X syndrome (FXS), for clinical testing in 2022.
Founded in 2015, Nanosono boasts that it has developed a “revolutionary” nanotechnology-based platform which enables instant and continuous antimicrobial action in an efficient, permanent and safe way – unlike similar technologies. This technology can be integrated to wide range of matrices and transforms daily-use applications into dynamic active shields against bacteria, viruses and other pathogens.
“The agreement with Gadot adheres to Nanosono’s new strategy, which is to focus on developing future technologies to fight infections and solve problems caused by bacteria and viruses,” said Nanosono CEO Ori Bar Chaim. “At the same time, establishing the strategic collaborations with leading chemical companies specialized in plastics, paint, textile, cosmetics, and pharma, will allow us to integrate our QUACTIV technology in various applications.”
