Cyrus Biotechnology Announces $8M Financing To Expand Computational Drug Discovery Software Platform

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cyrus Biotechnology, Inc., a Seattle-based biotechnology software firm offering an advanced computational tool for protein modeling and design to accelerate new drug discovery, today announced the closing of an $8M total Series A financing. The investment was led by Trinity Ventures, with participation from OrbiMed Advisors, SpringRock Ventures, W Fund and individual investors.

Cyrus Bench® software is based on years of work in computational biophysics and the first software algorithms to design new proteins in a computer. It accelerates drug discovery at pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, as well as new product development at synthetic biology, chemical and consumer products firms. Bench® is a graphical, cloud-enabled version of the Rosetta protein modeling toolkit. Data generated from Rosetta technology can be used in the design of new potential therapeutics, such as a therapeutic protein of Tocagen’s Toca 511 and PVP Biologics’ KumaMax, an oral enzyme.

“We are very excited to close this first institutional financing round with such knowledgeable, high-caliber biotech and high-tech investors,” said Cyrus CEO Dr. Lucas Nivon. “The new funding validates our business plan and allows us to expand the capabilities and opportunities of this cutting-edge platform. Our Bench® technology broadens access to the most advanced computational methods, giving more scientists the means to speed their research and save costs. The result will be more effective drugs getting to patients sooner.”

Cyrus offers Bench®, a Software-as-a-Service platform for protein structure prediction, discovery, modeling, stabilization, engineering and design, along with custom software development and experienced scientific support services in computational protein engineering. Bench® has been designed to make this technology more user-friendly and for a wider range of users than previous academic-based software. Cyrus launched a software beta in 2016 with initial release in early 2017, and has rapidly acquired customers ranging from Fortune 500 Pharma (including seven of the top 20 pharma firms), chemical and consumer products firms to privately-held biotech and synthetic biology firms.

“We are very excited to bring Cyrus Bench to a wide variety of customers, from blue chip Pharma firms to tiny startups, to truly democratize computational protein engineering and lower the cost of entry, as we have seen happen in software tech,” said Gus Tai, General Partner at Trinity Ventures who will join the Board of Directors, along with Eric Bell at SpringRock.

Carl Gordon of OrbiMed Advisors added, “I think Cyrus software will accelerate early therapeutics discovery in many organizations, especially at biologics focused biotech firms that are not currently benefitting from new biotech algorithms and software.”

About Cyrus Biotechnology and Cyrus Bench®

Cyrus Biotechnology, Inc. is a privately-held biotechnology software company offering protein modeling and design capabilities to the biopharmaceutical, chemical, consumer products and synthetic biology industries. The company offers Cyrus Bench®, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform for protein structure prediction, modeling, stabilization, and engineering and design to accelerate discovery of biologics and small molecules. Cyrus Bench® is based primarily on the Rosetta software package, along with associated software. Cyrus Bench® offers the advanced protein structure prediction pipeline of Rosetta and SparksX, the top structure prediction software in the bi-annual CASP competition (last held in 2016) and the weekly, continuous CAMEO competition, as well as the only protein engineering software experimentally proven to design new proteins completely via software. For more information about Cyrus and Bench® please visit our website https://cyrusbio.com/

NOTICE: The information contained in this document is dated as of July 27, 2017. Cyrus Biotechnology, Inc. (the Company) disclaims any obligation to update such information after such date. This document contains forward–looking statements reflecting the Company’s current expectations that necessarily involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results and the timing of events may differ materially from those contained in such forward-looking statements due to a number of factors and the Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the issuance of this press release.