X-37, LLC, an artificial intelligence-enabled drug discovery company, announced today that it has closed a $14.5 million Series A financing. The funding round was led by DCVC Bio and was joined by Alpha Intelligence Capital and Hemi Ventures. The Series A funding will be used to expand the number of drug development programs at X-37 and to advance identified drug leads through laboratory and preclinical testing, with the goal of beginning human clinical trials by 2022. X-37's development programs encompass novel therapeutics modulating important drug targets to address unmet clinical needs, including ZAP-70 for autoimmune disease, PIM3 and SHP2 for cancer, and Factor XIIa for anticoagulation.

X-37 was cofounded by Atomwise Inc. and a team of experienced pharmaceutical developers from Velocity Pharmaceutical Development. In addition to the above development programs, the team at X-37 will identify additional high-value drug targets, generate novel drug leads against these targets using Atomwise's world-class AI platform for structure-based drug design, and develop each of these drug programs to a medically-relevant inflection point, where it can be acquired by or partnered with a major pharmaceutical company to be brought to market.

X-37 makes use of an LLC structure permitting each drug development program to be housed in a separate virtual company under the parent LLC. This structure is tax efficient and flexible, in that it allows X-37 to divest individual drug development programs, while maintaining the parent company and team. X-37 began operation in 2018 and has already generated promising novel hit molecules against several targets of high interest to the pharmaceutical industry.

"We are thrilled with the progress we have made to date and we are looking forward to moving a set of important new drugs into development," said David Collier, M.D., CEO and cofounder of X-37. "With this financing, we have the ability to progress multiple discovery and development programs. Our investors have been a huge help in the genesis of X-37, and we look forward to working closely with them going forward."

"X-37 represents an opportunity to bring new drugs to market very quickly, for challenging targets that have repeatedly stumped pharma and are in dire need of advancement," said Abraham Heifets, CEO and Founder of Atomwise, Inc. "We're thrilled to work alongside industry veterans who have a track record of efficiently delivering drug after drug for the past 25 years."

"We are very pleased to be investors in X-37," said Kiersten Stead of DCVC Bio. "We have watched with great excitement as Atomwise has refined its deep neural network and chemistry expertise. We identified the team of drug developers at Velocity Pharmaceutical Development as ideal partners for Atomwise because of their experience in target selection and development of drug leads beyond the initial discovery stage. The progress of the combined teams at X-37 has been superb."

Following the financing, Kiersten Stead and Antoine Blondeau of Alpha Intelligence Capital joined the Board of Directors of X-37. The founding leadership team of X-37 is comprised of industry veterans and luminaries, including: David Collier, M.D., Matthew Kerby, Ph.D., PE, James Larrick, M.D., Ph.D., Andrew Perlman, M.D., Ph.D., Anie Roche, J.D., Ph.D., and Ed Schnipper, M.D., who together have brought 17 therapies to the market addressing an even greater number of indications.

About the Investors

DCVC Bio is a Silicon Valley venture capital fund focused on deep technology ventures that lie at the nexus of artificial intelligence (AI) and biotechnology. Alpha Intelligence Capital is a global venture capital fund investing in advanced AI technology-based companies. Hemi Ventures is an early stage venture capital fund investing in the rebels that commercialize nascent technologies to revolutionize industries.

About X-37

X-37 is a pharmaceutical discovery and development company, which uses advanced artificial intelligence technology from Atomwise, Inc., to screen vast libraries of chemical compounds against high value pharmaceutical targets. X-37 develops these novel drug candidates under an innovative LLC structure which allows the sale or partnership of individual development programs in a simple and efficient manner. The team at X-37 possesses deep expertise in pharmaceutical development and the selection of pharmaceutical targets of high importance. For more information, please visit www.x37.ai.