NEW YORK — Drug discovery company Hexagon Bio said on Wednesday that it has raised $61 million in private financing.
The funding round was led by Nextech Invest with participation from new investors SoftBank Vision Fund 2* and Casdin Capital and existing investors The Column Group, 8VC, and Two Sigma Ventures.
Hexagon has developed a platform that combines machine learning, genomics, synthetic biology, and automation to identify therapeutic small molecules and their protein targets directly from microbial genomes. With the new funding, the firm aims to expand its microbial genomics database and accelerate its drug discovery efforts, with an initial focus on infectious disease and cancer.
"Microbial genomes are an incredibly rich source of diverse, potent, and drug-like compounds that, as a result of millions of years of evolution, provide elegant solutions to human therapeutic targets that have eluded traditional screening approaches," Hexagon cofounder and CEO Maureen Hillenmeyer said in a statement.
About a year ago, Menlo Park, California-based Hexagon raised $47 million in a Series A round.