Orbit Discovery announces $7.6 million funding to accelerate growth in peptide discovery business

Oxford, United Kingdom, 20 July, 2021: Orbit Discovery Ltd., (“Orbit”), a privately held biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering candidate peptide therapeutics harnessing proprietary affinity and cell-based functional screening platforms, today announced that it has raised $7.6 million (USD) in funding.

The financing was led by Oxford Sciences Innovation, with participation from Borealis Ventures, Perivoli Innovations, and other institutional and individual investors, including Kapil Dev Joory.

Proceeds from the financing will be used to accelerate Orbit’s growth trajectory as a leading provider of peptide discovery services to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. Orbit’s novel bead-based and microfluidic technology platform enables the screening of peptide libraries for target binding and subsequent activity in cell-based functional assays. This makes the platform ideal for identifying active peptides against both soluble proteins and membrane bound targets such as GPCRs.

“Orbit’s team has the right combination of scientific rigor and novel peptide technologies to lead a new generation of drug development, and we look forward to partnering with the team to advance their mission,” said Nick Dixon-Clegg, Principal at Oxford Sciences Innovation. “Orbit is creating the next wave of innovative technologies that facilitate faster and more specific therapeutic molecule discovery. We believe the ability to assess specific binding and functional screening through a single platform is a key gap in the market and offers a strong future for the Company.”

Until now, researchers have struggled to unite high throughput affinity screens with functional screens utilising peptide libraries of very high chemical diversity. The use of a bead-based peptide display engine along with microfluidic technologies allows Orbit to interrogate the activity of each library member against single cells. This capability opens the door to identifying functional molecules including those that may have agonistic or antagonist properties on disease relevant targets. These functional leads provide the starting point for the development of peptide, small molecule, other therapeutics or as bioconjugates, providing exquisite targeting and cargo delivery mechanisms.

“Our proprietary platform gives our clients a unique capability in high throughput affinity and cell based functional screening, efficiently delivering therapeutic relevant peptides.” said Dr. Neil Butt, Chief Executive Officer of Orbit Discovery. “We intend to use this financing to position ourselves as a market leader in peptide discovery as we seek to develop therapies for the future.”

ENDS

For further information please contact:

Orbit Discovery Ltd

Neil Butt, CEO
Email: [email protected]

Zyme Communications

Lily Jeffery
Email: [email protected]

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About Orbit Discovery

Orbit Discovery is a functional screening service company focused on the use of novel bead and microfluidic technology platforms to improve the throughput of functional screening of peptides, when searching for agonist of antagonists. The Orbit technologies encompass target protein expression and purification, with a focus on GPCRs; affinity screening to identify panels of target binding therapeutic candidates; and functional screening in cell-based assays. The Company’s multi-disciplinary team of world-class researchers and drug developers is working to translate this technology into breakthrough human therapeutics for our partners and collaborators; these parties encompass both large scale pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Orbit, a spin-out company from the University of Oxford, is based in the Oxford Science Park and benefits from the expertise and experience of its founders, Professor Graham Ogg (University of Oxford) and Professor Terry Rabbitts (formerly University of Oxford; now The Institute of Cancer Research).

For more information, please visit www.orbitdiscovery.com

About Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI)

Oxford Sciences Innovation is a science business builder. We build world-changing businesses, bringing Oxford science to the world faster. Since 2015, we have worked with over 200 of Oxford’s leading academics to build a portfolio of more than 100 companies, worth over $2 billion, all based on Oxford science, created +1,500 new jobs and added +55,000 square-feet of laboratory and startup space; building on Oxford’s renowned research legacy to create a leading science ecosystem. A place where scientific breakthroughs become world-changing businesses. Our portfolio of companies spans four sectors, Life Sciences, Deep Tech, Health Tech and Software & AI, tackling challenges like the diagnosis and treatment of devastating rare diseases and cancer, sustainability, nuclear fusion, quantum computing and cyber-security. 

For more information, please visit www.oxfordsciencesinnovation.com

About Borealis Ventures

Borealis Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm partnering closely with exceptional entrepreneurs since 2002 to build visionary healthcare companies.  Borealis focuses on life science platforms, digital health, and animal health opportunities, often involving the translation of university-based innovation. Current life science portfolio companies include Adimab (antibody discovery) Amagma Therapeutics (inflammatory disease), Avitide (affinity purification), Compass Therapeutics (immuno-oncology), Evox Therapeutics (exosomes) and Orbit Discovery (peptide discovery).

For more information, please visit www.borealisventures.com

About Perivoli Innovations

Perivoli Innovations, which is wholly owned by the Perivoli Trust, invests in opportunities presented by the commercialisation of early stage life science, medical, digital, and other new technologies spinning mainly out of UK universities. It also invests in new businesses evolving around the digitalisation of money in East Africa. Its purpose is to fund the Perivoli Schools Trust which focuses on improving the quality of nursery schools in sub-Saharan Africa.

For more information, please visit www.perivoliinnovations.com