Numerate, Inc., a biotechnology company that is applying novel machine-learning algorithms at cloud scale to transform small molecule drug discovery, today announced that it has completed an $8 million financing round co-led by Atlas Venture and Lilly Ventures, with participation from existing investors. Concurrent with the financing, Bruce Booth, Ph.D, Partner at Atlas Venture, and Steve Hall, Ph.D., Venture Partner at Lilly Ventures, have joined the Numerate Board of Directors.

'We are pleased to have the support of Atlas Venture and Lilly Ventures,' said Guido Lanza, president and chief executive officer of Numerate. 'Their investment recognizes the success of our novel drug design platform in solving key problems of small molecule drug discovery and will enable us to advance our lead programs in metabolic, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. In metabolic disease, we are targeting the free fatty acid receptors to address diabetes, obesity and related co-morbidities, while in cardiovascular disease we are targeting the Ryanodine receptor 2 to discover improved drugs for heart failure and arrhythmia.'

According to Bruce Booth, 'Numerate has created an innovative platform for designing novel drug leads against targets previously addressed poorly by computer-aided drug design.'

'We are excited about the progress Numerate is making in its lead programs, which address major conditions that lack effective treatments today,' added Steve Hall.

Numerate is focused on making the drug design process more data-driven, efficient and predictable. Unlike structure-based approaches that rely on crystal structure data, Numerate™s drug design platform uses all relevant data (SAR, patents, phenotypic data, etc.) to design novel compounds in an iterative fashion. This platform is ideally suited to emerging targets where there is little known data or where traditional methods have been unable to generate lead compounds that meet all the criteria for a drug candidate.

About Numerate

Numerate is a privately held biotechnology company that applies novel machine-learning algorithms, at cloud scale, to overcome major challenges in small molecule drug discovery. Numerate™s drug design platform combines advances in computer science and statistics with traditional medicinal chemistry approaches to address, in parallel, the factors that determine the success and failure of a drug candidate. Numerate is using this proprietary platform to develop a pipeline of drug programs in the cardiovascular, metabolic and neurodegenerative disease areas, focused on targets not typically addressed by computer-aided drug discovery. For more information, visit www.numerate.com.

About Atlas Venture

Atlas Venture is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in technology and life sciences businesses. Since inception, its partners have helped build more than 400 companies. Atlas is currently investing from its ninth fund and manages approximately $2B in committed capital. For more information, visit www.atlasventure.com.

About Lilly Ventures

Lilly Ventures, one of the venture capital funds associated with Eli Lilly and Company, manages $200 million in committed capital, investing in start-up biopharmaceutical and medical technology companies in early through expansion-stage investments. The primary goal of Lilly Ventures is to facilitate the success of companies with innovative technologies by providing both financial and intellectual resources to accelerate the management teams™ paths to success. For more information, visit www.lillyventures.com.