RevolKa raises ￥150 million series A extension
RevolKa Ltd. announces the appointment of Norio Hamamatsu, Ph.D. as President & CEO and the closing of a 150 million JPY (US$1.0 million) Series A extension funding to accelerate AI-based protein engineering programs
RevolKa is advancing AI-driven protein engineering platform to create novel proteins
Tokyo Japan- Feb 1st, 2024. RevolKa Ltd. (RevolKa), a venture-backed biotech company providing a cutting-edge protein engineering technology platform announced that Norio Hamamatsu, Ph.D. has been named President & CEO and closed a 150 million JPY (US$1.0M) Series A extension financing. The funds will go toward developing a pipeline of Next-gen therapeutic and high-performance molecules by using its proprietary protein engineering platform technology, called aiProtein®: a robust directed protein evolution technology integrated with artificial intelligence (AI). D3 LLC (Tomoya Nagata, Managing Partner, CEO) co-led the Series A extension round along with DEEPCORE Inc. (Katsumasa Niki, President & CEO) and the existing investor, TOHOKU University Venture Partners Co., Ltd. (Tetsuro Higuchi, President & CEO).
AI-driven protein engineering is a growing technology to create highly functional proteins designed for industrial and therapeutic uses, taking attention as a game-changing integration of AI and biomolecular engineering. RevolKa announced the accomplishment of the milestone achievement in the collaborative research with Sumitomo Pharma Co., Ltd. in June 2023, where RevolKa delivered lead candidates of therapeutic proteins for the treatment of a rare disease. RevolKa recently also announced the initiation of contract research with SEKISUI Chemical Co., Ltd. for the design of novel industrial proteins. RevolKa is an enthusiast of proteins and committed to leveraging aiProtein® platform to create innovative protein molecules.
RevolKa announced the appointment of Ayumi Iwase as a board director and the resignation of Shiro Kataoka, Ph.D. as the company’s President and CEO. Shiro decided to depart the company. Shiro initiated RevolKa with Mitsuo Umetsu, Ph.D., CSO in Apr 2021. Under his leadership, RevolKa formed the talented team and accomplished the challenging goal of the collaboration with Sumitomo Pharma Co., Ltd.. We thank Shiro for his dedication to RevolKa’s growth since inception.
About D3 LLC
D3.LLC, founded in 2017, is a healthcare-focused investment, business, and consulting company. Our mission is to contribute to global healthcare. We go beyond funding promising scientific and technological seeds and business ideas (Discovery), working alongside entrepreneurs to create meaningful products and services and build business models to deliver them to market (Development). We aim for the social implementation of science, technology, and ideas (Deployment). In venture-capital activities, we value investing in a selected company and providing hands-on support to them in accordance with global standards in the biotech and healthcare VC.
About DEEPCORE Inc.
DEEPCORE Inc. is a venture capital focused on companies in the fields of AI and advanced technologies, supporting entrepreneurs who have the vision to change the world through technology. We invest in pre-seed to early-stage startups in a wide range of industries and sectors, including healthcare, manufacturing, and logistics.In addition to investment activities, we also focus on supporting entrepreneurs. For instance, we are operating "KERNEL", a community of AI engineers, researchers, and entrepreneurs, and "KERNEL Global Startup Camp", an accelerator program focused on early-stage startups looking to expand their business overseas.
About TOHOKU University Venture Partners Co., LTD.
TOHOKU University Venture Partners (THVP) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tohoku University, established with the philosophy of creating new industries by investing in and supporting venture companies aiming to commercialize excellent technologies based on the research results of Tohoku University.
After investment, THVP aims to increase corporate value and maximize shareholder value through hands-on management, business planning support, financing, and sales channel expansion support, as well as active involvement with the investee companies. THVP will also contribute to regional revitalization centered on the seven Tohoku prefectures.
About aiProtein® Technology
RevolKa’s proprietary technology, aiProtein® is an AI-assisted directed evolution of proteins. Naturally occurring protein is a linear polymer of amino acids and their derivatives, which folds into a tertial structure through internal complex atomic interactions to show biological function. Proteins have evolved to biologically functional molecules over hundreds of millions of years. The relationship between protein sequence, structure, and function in those highly complex molecules remains poorly understood to rationally design a protein sequence for a particular function. Our AI engine is trained with sequence-function relationship data to statistically predict sequences for an evolved protein function. Furthermore, aiProtein® can evolve more than two functions simultaneously. This technology is a powerful and cost-effective tool for the creation of novel and highly-optimized proteins for pharmaceutical and industrial uses.
About RevolKa Ltd.
RevolKa is a venture-backed biotechnology company founded in April 2021 by academic and industry experts in biotechnology and artificial intelligence. Our mission is to create novel proteins useful for therapeutics and industries by using our own proprietary technology, aiProtein® to contribute to human well-being. The name "RevolKa" is derived from the Latin word for evolution, "evolutio” and the Ainu (an indigenous Japanese people) word for raise, “reska”. RevolKa’s headquarters are located in Tokyo, Japan with laboratories located in Sendai. The company’s investors include Tohoku University Venture Partners Co., Ltd. and SBI Investment Co., Ltd., and newly joined D3 LLC and DEEPCORE Inc.. For more information, visit https://www.revolka.com/en/.
20240201_Release_RevolKa raises ￥150 million series A extension
