Recursion to buy AI-enabled drug discovery startups Cyclica, Valence

• Recursion expects both acquisitions to be completed in the second quarter of 2023
• Cyclica is backed by Chiesi Farmaceutici, Drive Capital, GreenSky Capital and other investors
• Valence is backed by Air Street Capital, Amplitude Ventures, Fifty Years, Phoenix Venture Partners and other investors

Recursion, a Salt Lake City, Utah-based company focused on decoding biology to industrialize drug discovery, has agreed to acquire Cyclica and Valence Discovery, two Canadian startups operating in the artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled drug discovery market.

Recursion agreed to buy Toronto-based Cyclica for $40 million and Montreal-based Valence for $47.5 million.

The purchase price in the acquisitions will be payable in the form of shares of Recursion Class A common stock, shares of a subsidiary of Recursion exchangeable for shares of Recursion’s Class A common stock and the assumption of certain outstanding Valence and Cyclica options.

Recursion expects both acquisitions to be completed in the second quarter of 2023.

“Recursion has pioneered the massive, parallel generation of -omics data with machine learning in order to map and navigate biology to discover new medicines faster. The strategic acquisitions of Cyclica and Valence add industry-leading capabilities in digital chemistry, as well as machine-learning and artificial intelligence, which combined with our large-scale automated wet-laboratories and supercomputing capabilities, enables us to deploy what I believe is the most complete, technology-enabled drug discovery solution in the biopharma industry. We look forward to showing the world proof of the compounding benefit of this full-stack approach through the rapid acceleration of our pipeline and partnerships. Amidst a rapidly accelerating global race for technology talent, these acquisitions cement Recursion as the center of gravity for the best and brightest in ML and AI who want to reimagine how drugs are discovered,” said Chris Gibson, co-founder and CEO of Recursion, in a statement.

Cyclica, which has been advancing a drug discovery portfolio focused on the central nervous system, oncology and auto-immune diseases, is backed by Chiesi Farmaceutici, Drive Capital, GreenSky Capital and other investors.

Valence, a developer of technologies enabling the design of differentiated small molecules with improved properties and function, is backed by Air Street Capital, Amplitude Ventures, Fifty Years, Phoenix Venture Partners and other investors.