How automotive exec Crystal Brown founded CircNova, an AI drug discovery biotech
Summary
Tiny Michigan biotech startup CircNova has raised a $3.3 million seed round for its technology that uses AI to target circular RNA. It regulates critical biological processes, and the hope is that therapies based on these molecules will be able to target complex health issues.CircNova has developed a proprietary AI engine that allows us to identify, design, and then produce novel, non-coding, circular RNAs, Brown told TechCrunch.Its an AI engine similar to Googles DeepMind AlphaFold, in that it also uses deep learning AI not some kind of large language model to generate and analyze new circular RNA for therapeutic use.CircNova has not only its NovaEngine, which it says is the first in the world to be able to predict circular RNA structures, but it also has a wet lab. The company went public, giving her a healthy enough payout to buy a house, she said.Flushed with success, she launched a biotech startup of her own, a contract research lab.She raised money, then made all the classic first-founder mistakes. She even lost her house, she recalled.But she had gained a stellar reputation in Michigans tight-knit startup community and Brown recalls that VCs told her, Youre a good founder anyway. What can I do with the $15,000 grant to get it started?That first expenditure developed the startups first process and another $25,000 from a National Science Foundation grant led to the first patent application.She began to split her time between Michigan and Boston, near her customers and wish-list customers like Moderna and Pfizer.As for betting on Brown again, VCs like Nia Batts, a general partner at Union Heritage Ventures, had no problem with it.We are no stranger to the resilience that is needed when you engage in the journey of entrepreneurship, Batts said, adding that she knew she wanted to back this new venture the moment she met Brown and heard about the idea.This $3.3 million seed round was led by diversity-focused VC South Loop Ventures and includes investment from Dug Song, Union Heritage, Michigan Rise, Invest Detroit, Kalamazoo Forward Ventures, and SPARK Capital.