Belfast-based biotech, Amply, has secured over £1.4 million in grant funding to advance its AI-powered drug discovery platform, with plans to raise additional seed funding this year.
The startup intends to use the investment to further develop its AI-powered drug discovery platform.
The investment arrives in two tranches; £835,000 is provided by Innovate UK and Innosuisse and will be used to investigate and develop new RNAi therapy for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, while £602,000 provided by, again, Innovate UK, will see Amply focus on the development of a new nebulised antimicrobial product for MDR-TB.
According to the Queens’ University Belfast spin-out, Amply intends to raise an additional £1.4 million in a seed funding round in the second quarter of this year.
On the new influx of capital, Amply CEO and co-founder Dr. Ben Thomas shared:
“This new funding will further help AMPLY to realise its ambition of democratising the discovery of new therapeutics by building a transformative Drug Discovery Studio which leverages the raw power of evolution to unearth new medicines from nature’s huge untapped reservoir.”
Existing backers of Amply include co-fund NI, a vehicle managed by Clarendon Fund Managers and supported by Invest NI and the British Business Bank, QUBIS, the Helix Way Partnership, Techstars, alongside angel investors from members of the Halo Business Angel Network (HBAN).
Picture caption: Amply co-founders Dermot Tierney and Dr. Ben Thomas
