Colorado-based biotech Enveda has closed a $311m Series E funding round to advance its pipeline of artificial intelligence (AI)-discovered therapies for inflammatory and metabolic disorders – taking its total raised to more than $845m.
Through this financing, which was led by Catalio Capital Management and contributed to by several other technology and healthcare investors, the biotech will push its range of clinical and preclinical-stage oral therapies further down the development pipeline.
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A centrepiece of this raise is Enveda’s mid-stage inflammatory disease candidate, ENV-294, which is currently in Phase II for eczema and asthma. With the cash from this raise, Enveda will take ENV-294 to later-stage trials – expected to begin in the coming months – while expanding the programme to additional indications.
The biotech designed ENV-294, a non-kinase therapy, to reset the cellular immune response to chronic inflammation. Through this novel mechanism of action, Enveda proposes that the drug can address inflammatory conditions through multiple inflammatory pathways such as Th2, Th17 and Th1. Thus far, ENV-294 has already shown promise in a Phase Ib study in atopic dermatitis (AD) (NCT07336940), with the drug reducing disease severity by an average of 85% after 42 days of treatment.
Enveda also plans to use the funds to advance ENV-308 to later-stage clinical trials as the drug progresses through Phase II development. Enveda designed ENV-308 as an oral weight loss maintenance therapy for patients stopping treatment with obesity medicines.
ENV-308 has shown promise in early-stage trials, with the medicine exhibiting a gastrointestinal side effect profile Enveda calls “exceptional”, while showing early signs of target engagement through its ability to reduce circulating levels of the fat hormone, leptin.
On top of its efforts with ENV-294 and ENV-308, Enveda also plans to progress its inflammatory bowel disease therapy, ENV-6946, through Phase II studies mid-stage trials, with the drug currently in a Phase I study.
Identifying nature’s therapies with AI
While the clinical-stage assets will likely absorb the lion’s share of the financing round, Enveda will also use some of the funds to scale its AI platform, PRISM, which is responsible for identifying therapeutic compounds of interest.
Unlike some AI-based drug discovery tools, which aim to build new therapeutic molecules from scratch, Enveda designed PRISM to identify existing natural molecules found in plants, microbes and the human body. According to the biotech, molecules of this nature could present a lower risk of toxicity and issues around bioavailability compared with synthetic alternatives.
By using PRISM, Enveda has created 17 drug candidates – all of which the company claims harness a first-in-class mechanism.
Enveda explores the potential of natural molecules as researchers recently identified a $1.2tn untapped opportunity for pharma through the conservation of the world’s tropical rainforests, which contain a wealth of diverse plants with therapeutic properties.
Currently, multiple nature-derived cancer drugs pull in blockbuster sales, including Roche’s Kadcyla (trastuzumab emtansine), which made $1.1bn in the first half of 2026 alone.
