NeuroX1 🧬

Setting the Scene

• Traditional drug discovery methods are slow, expensive, and have high failure rates.

  • The average drug discovery takes 10-15 years.

  • The economic burden exceeds more than $655B annually.

  • The failure rate of drugs for neurodegenerative diseases is about 99%.

• This week’s company leverages AI to identify targets of neurological diseases and generate drug candidates.

In a Sentence

NeuroX1 utilizes AI to identify drivers of neurological diseases to improve the drug discovery process.

• Drivers: The platform analyzes biological data to uncover underlying causes behind brain diseases.

• Discovery: NeuroX1 designs computational compounds, potentially speeding up the time consuming process of drug discovery.

The Basics

• Industry: Biotech

• Headquarters: Austin, TX

• Year founded: 2021

• Employee count: 10

• Investors: Drive Capital, Trousdale Partners, Vibe Capital, Syntax Ventures, Next Sequence VC, Techstars

• Amount raised: $2.12 million

• Currently raising: $2 million Seed extension

• Business model: B2B; Upfront payment for early discovery and then progressively increasing milestones as drug assets progress through each phase of clinical development, plus a royalty if approved.  

• Early traction: 3 industry co-development partnerships and 2 academic collaborations.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

• Crafting your startup’s cash management strategy? 

• First, divide your funds into three categories: liquid, short-term, and strategic. 

• From there, it’s about optimizing for risk and yield according to those time horizons. 

• But how much should you put in each category?

Due Diligence

WHAT WE LIKE

• Market Opportunity: The neurological disorder drugs market is expected to grow nearly 5% annually due to the rising prevalence of diseases among aging populations and demand for treatments.

• Drug Discovery: NeuroX1's use of generative chemistry dramatically shortens the time and reduces the cost needed to find new drugs, representing a major leap forward in medicine development.

• Innovative Business Model: The company’s B2B model, which combines upfront payments with milestones and royalties, aligns incentives across the drug development process while fostering innovation.

POTENTIAL RISKS

• AI Hallucinations: Like other advanced algorithms, NeuroX1’s platform might generate chemically valid but biologically unproven structures, potentially leading to redirected research paths and careful client expectation management.

• Non-Recurring Revenue: While NeuroX1 has an innovative monetization model, its dependence on performance could delay unrealized annualized revenue.

• Algorithm Overlap: If NeuroX1's AI learns and adapts from multiple lab projects simultaneously, there's a risk that one project's discovery process could inadvertently influence another's, diluting the exclusive value of expensive, proprietary research for organizations.

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Founder Profile

• Max Dordevic, CEO: Former CEO of Veritas Innovation and life science researcher.

• Lucas Myers, CTO: Software engineer with a background in applied math, healthcare data pipelines, infrastructure, and product management.   

• Conner Myers, PhD, CIO: Physicist and high-performance computing expert, specialized in GPU acceleration of physics simulations at Lawrence Livermore and Sandia National Labs.

Comps

• Cradle: Backed by Kindred Capital, Index Ventures, and others.

• CHARM Therapeutics: Backed by NVentures, General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, F-Prime Capital, and others.

• Aquemia: Backed by Wendel Growth, Bpifrance, Eurazeo, and others.

• Pangea Botanica: Backed by No Label Ventures, Seaside Ventures, Kadmos Kapital, and others.

Event Board

• Thanks to all of you who came out to our event last night. More to come…

Cast Your Vote

Last Week Today

• The results are in: Blockpliance, a platform that arms institutions against illicit blockchain transactions, was favored in last week’s poll.

• Subscriber feedback: “Blockpliance gives the power back to financial institutions to ensure the security of virtual transactions — It’s a no-brainer.”

✍️ Written by Brett 

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