Enveda Secures $150M Series D, Advances Lead Program & Adds Ex-Pfizer R&D Chief to Board
Founded in 2019 and based in Boulder, Colorado, Enveda has raised $150 million in a Series D financing round, enrolled the first patient in a Phase 1b trial for its lead program ENV-294 in atopic dermatitis, and appointed Mikael Dolsten, former Chief Scientific Officer at Pfizer, to its board of directors. The round, led by Premji Invest with participation from Baillie Gifford, Kinnevik, Lux Capital, and others, follows a $150 million Series C closing in February and brings Enveda’s total funding to $517 million.
The company is advancing a pipeline of novel small molecules against inflammatory and metabolic diseases, including asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, and obesity. Series D proceeds will support Phase 1b and Phase 2 trials, additional IND filings, and continued expansion of preclinical programs.
About the Platform
Enveda’s drug discovery approach is centered on a proprietary “chemical sequencer” that integrates large-scale metabolomics, automation, and AI. The platform is designed around three steps: organize, translate, and apply.
- Organize: Enveda has assembled what it describes as the world’s largest searchable library of plant-derived molecules. The database links 38,000 plants to more than 12,000 human diseases and symptoms, and combines this knowledge with new samples sourced for therapeutic potential. Using advanced mass spectrometry, the company catalogs the chemical composition of plants, many of which contain thousands of molecules that have never been characterized by science.
- Translate: The company applies AI models to analyze chemical structures at scale, accelerating a process that traditionally required isolation and weeks of experimental work. Its foundation model, PRISM, is trained on more than a billion small molecule mass spectra—reportedly the largest dataset of its kind. By predicting molecular structures directly from spectra, the model enables rapid interpretation of thousands of molecules at once, reducing structural identification.
- Apply: A fully automated laboratory screens molecules at high throughput to map biological activity against therapeutic targets. This infrastructure allows Enveda to evaluate chemical libraries systematically and prioritize compounds for drug development.
The platform is reported to deliver development candidates more than four times faster and at lower cost than industry averages. Beyond drug discovery, Enveda notes that its “library of life” could eventually be applied to areas such as diagnostics, agriculture, nutrition, and manufacturing.
ENV-294 is a first-in-class oral anti-inflammatory drug derived from natural sources with a novel mechanism of action. Preclinical studies indicated kinase- and steroid-like efficacy in inflammatory disease models, with safety comparable to biologics. Following favorable Phase 1a results in healthy volunteers, the Phase 1b trial will evaluate safety and efficacy in patients with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis.
Apart from ENV-294, Enveda’s second lead candidate, ENV-6946, is being developed as an oral therapy for inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. The candidate is designed as a gut-selective small molecule that engages multiple clinically validated pathways simultaneously. By concentrating activity in the gut, ENV-6946 is intended to reduce systemic exposure and associated safety risks while maintaining efficacy. Preclinical work supports its potential to combine disease control with improved tolerability and oral convenience. The program is expected to enter clinical trials in 2025.
Enveda currently has 16 preclinical programs, over a dozen development candidates, and four IND-enabling programs in addition to ENV-294 and ENV-6946.
Dolsten’s appointment adds senior leadership experience from his career overseeing more than 150 drug candidates and 36 approvals at Pfizer. His addition comes as Enveda positions itself to broaden its clinical footprint and scale its AI-enabled natural chemistry platform.
Topic: Biotech Ventures
