A Boston-based company working to improve the way drugs are brought to the market has secured $110 million in Series B funding from Koch Disruptive Technologies.
Valo Health LLC said in a press release that the investment from the division of Wichita-based Koch Industries Inc. closed its Series B at $300 million pushed its total funding past $450 million.
Founded in 2019, Valo aims to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance drug discovery and development.
”We see Valo's strategy and approach to transforming drug discovery and development as highly disruptive to the industry,” Chase Koch, president of Koch Disruptive Technologies, said in a press release. “Their machine learning and data-centric technology solutions will bring significant value to patients and healthcare practitioners looking for more efficient and enhanced treatment options. The medtech and health-care markets are currently undergoing dramatic change and accelerated transformation, and our investment in Valo is a testament not only to our belief in their mission but to the importance of this industry in general."
According to a report from the Boston Business Journal, Valo's platform, called the "Opal Computational Platform," uses clinical data to identify molecules and predict their chances for success in various therapeutic areas. The idea is to make drug discovery an "end-to-end" operation rather than what founder and CEO David Berry describes as a disjointed approach.
The newly boosted Series B round will largely be used to further build the Opal technology, which Valo is currently investigating in cardiovascular, neurodegenerative and oncological applications. Berry expects that it could be applied to other disease areas as well.
Koch Disruptive Technologies was launched in late 2017. It has since invested in companies with specialties ranging from the mobile payment market and advanced ultrasound technologies to 3D metal printing and cloud computing services.
The division late last year became part of the company’s new Koch Investments Group, along with five other internal business units.
