Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has invested in Irish start-up Nuritas, Image: World Economic Forum/CC BY-SA 2.0
Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff is reportedly one of the latest people to invest in Dublin start-up Nuritas, which specialises in artificial intelligence to reinvent therapeutics.
The Irish company raised a reported €2m in its second funding round, with California-based Efficient Capacity, which Marc Benioff owns, involved, according to the Irish Independent.
Last October, the company raised $3.2m from Singapore-based New Protein Capital, which was again involved this time around. Also included in the latest funding is Enterprise Ireland and Acdeng Property.
By using advanced computer algorithms, Nuritas CSO Dr Nora Khaldi and her team are able to break down a food source from more than 30bn molecules within that source and subsequently break that down to 100 feasible molecules that can be used for scientific research.
Having attended a conference in the US on milk and seeing a presentation on the effects on the growth and development of wallabies, Khaldi, who will be speaking at Inspirefest this summer, realised she wanted to work in this field of science but, more importantly, wanted to establish a brand new field of science, that of bioinformatics.
With backing coming from far and wide now, Khaldi and her colleagues have made that a viable reality. Early success has brought about major interest, with the former NovaUCD company also armed with Emmet Browne as chief executive, who led Pfizer’s Irish operations in the past.
Inspirefest is Silicon Republic’s international event connecting sci-tech professionals passionate about the future of STEM. Join us again from 30 June to 2 July 2016 for fresh perspectives on leadership, innovation and diversity. Book your tickets now.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has invested in Irish start-up Nuritas, Image: World Economic Forum/CC BY-SA 2.0
