Much of the attention in AI drug discovery goes to models that design molecules from scratch. Enveda starts somewhere else: with the chemistry that plants and microbes have already produced.

Investors have now backed that approach with more money. The biotech startup has raised a $311 million Series E at a $2 billion valuation. Catalio Capital Management led the round, and Iconiq was among the other participants. The new valuation is double the one Enveda reached 12 months ago.

Nature as the starting library

Conventional drug discovery often means building a compound in the lab and then testing whether it does anything useful. Enveda's premise is that many powerful medicines may already exist in plants and microbes, waiting to be found and put to use.

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