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Fathom Therapeutics raises USD 47m in Series A for AI-enabled small molecule drug design

New York-based Fathom Therapeutics, formerly known as Atommap Corp., has closed an oversubscribed USD 47 million Series A financing round to advance its physics-based and AI-enabled small molecule drug design platform.

Sutter Hill Ventures led the round, with participation from Chemistry, Alexandria Venture Investments, and Empire State Development's NY Ventures, among others. The company said proceeds will be used to scale its lab-in-the-loop capabilities and expand internal discovery programs across high-impact disease areas. No prior funding rounds were identified in the available information.

At the center of Fathom's approach is Microcosmos, a drug design engine that uses proprietary algorithms to simulate protein motion at atomic resolution. The company says these simulations, grounded in quantum mechanical calculations, accelerate modeling of protein dynamics by 10,000-fold without compromising accuracy, enabling the generative design of small molecules that modulate protein behavior. The company said the platform has produced potent, selective degrader candidates against a target previously considered undruggable within six weeks, with those candidates now in optimization ahead of planned clinical advancement. Fathom has an active internal pipeline, multiple external discovery partnerships, and has advanced its lead program into animal efficacy studies, though specific pipeline targets were not disclosed in available materials.

Fathom was co-founded by Huafeng Xu, who serves as CEO; Yujie Wu, Chief Technology Officer; and Jesús Izaguirre, Chief Computational Scientist. Wu and Izaguirre previously held roles at Roivant Discovery, with Wu also having worked at Schrödinger and Izaguirre at Silicon Therapeutics. The company said its founding team is behind the Anton supercomputer and widely used software for predicting protein-drug binding. Collectively, the leadership team has advanced 19 drugs to the clinic, including seven US FDA-approved medicines.

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Alongside the financing, Fathom announced the appointment of Mandana Honu as Chief Business Officer. Honu previously served as Head of Business Development at Protillion Biosciences, Chief Scientific Officer at Kaleidoscope Bio, and Head of Scientific Assessments and Corporate Business Development at Resilience, and is also a strategic advisor to Sutter Hill Ventures. Diala Ezzeddine has joined the board of directors, bringing experience as a founder and executive at X-Chem Pharmaceuticals and Magnet Biomedicine.

The company has also established a Scientific Advisory Board, which includes Ian Taylor, former Chief Scientific Officer of Arvinas; Dimitris Agrafiotis, Director at Arsenal Capital Partners and formerly Chief Information Officer at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research; and Bruce Zetter, Professor of Cancer Biology at Harvard University and Boston Children's Hospital.


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