Latvian LongeVC invested in US biotech startup Unnatural Products

Latvian LongeVC participated in 32M of US biotech startup Unnatural Products. Round A was led by the US growth investment company Merck Global Health Innovation Fund (MGHIF) and San Fransisco-based techbio-focused ARTIS Ventures. Among other backers are the US First Spark Ventures, The Venture Collective, Humain Ventures, and Not Boring Capital.

Founded in Santa Cruz, California in 2017 by Cameron Pye and Joshua Schwochert, Unnatural Products is a platform for discovering drugs, which combines synthetic macrocycle space (molecules containing a ring of twelve or more atoms) with machine learning, chemistry, and AI. The platform engineers synthetic cyclic peptide macrocycles that mimic nature’s macrocycles.

Nature’s macrocycles have been used as medicines for decades. The ring structure of macrocycles gives them unique properties useful in medicine. Their larger size and favorable drug-like properties allow macrocycles to hit intracellular targets too complex for small molecules and replicate the potency and selectivity of antibodies in an oral dosage form.

Unnatural Products will use the investment to advance the development of UNP’s technology platform and expand the company’s focus beyond oncology into new opportunities.

Founded in 2016 by Garri Zmudze, Sergey Jakimov, and Ilya Suharenko, LongeVC is a venture company with offices in Riga and Lugano (Switzerland). A €35M fund backs startups at the early and seed stages across the US and Europe. This year, LongeVC invested in San Francisco-based psychedelics startup Freedom Biosciences, US home kits for blood testing SiPhox Health, US startup Melio, which offers rapid diagnostic solutions for bloodstream infections, US AI-powered platform and a diagnostic test to detect ovarian cancer at the early stages AOA Dx, US biotech Interface Biosciences, which develops inflammatory disease treatment, and Estonian beauty and health tech Haut.AI.