Ignota Labs
Ignota Labs is a Cambridge-based AI biotech whose SAFEPATH platform uses deep learning with cheminformatics and bioinformatics to identify root causes of drug toxicity and rescue clinical-stage drug candidates abandoned due to safety failures, serving pharmaceutical and biotech companies through asset turnaround and licensing deals.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2022
- HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Ignota Labs does
Ignota Labs is a Cambridge, UK-based AI biotech founded in 2022 that specializes in rescuing clinical-stage drug candidates abandoned due to safety failures. Its core product is SAFEPATH, a proprietary AI platform that combines deep learning, cheminformatics, and bioinformatics through a causal knowledge graph to identify the root molecular and biological mechanisms behind drug toxicity rather than merely flagging adverse effects. The platform integrates multi-omics data (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics) with chemical and biological datasets, and has produced externally validated models including DILIPredictor (Drug-Induced Liver Injury, AUC-PR 0.79) and the first public DICTrank classifiers for FDA Drug-Induced Cardiotoxicity (AUCPR 0.93), developed with the Broad Institute.
The company operates an asset-turnaround business model rather than a SaaS or fee-for-service model: it acquires or in-licenses distressed drug assets, applies SAFEPATH to resolve their safety issues, and then either sells, out-licenses, or co-develops the revived candidates with pharmaceutical partners. Its current pipeline includes the in-licensed first-in-class PDE9A inhibitor for metabolic and post-menopausal women's health (in-licensed December 2024), and the clinical pipeline acquired from Kronos Bio in October 2025 — CDK9 inhibitor istisociclib and SYK inhibitors entospletinib and lanraplenib for blood cancers and autoimmune disorders. Customers and partners are large pharmaceutical companies (Sanofi via the iDEA-Tech Award) and public-sector bodies (NHS Health Innovation Network, Genomics England), reached through direct enterprise field sales, conference presence (ELRIG, BioTrinity, Fierce Biotech Week), and scientific publications.
Ignota is privately held and venture-backed, having closed a $6.9M seed round in February 2025 co-led by Montage Ventures and AIX Ventures, with prior non-dilutive funding from Innovate UK (£75,000 Women in Innovation Award) and Sanofi (€120,000 iDEA-Tech Award). The company is led by co-founders Sam Windsor (CEO, ex-DeepMind AlphaFold commercialization, INSEAD MBA), Dr. Layla Hosseini-Gerami (CDSO, Cambridge PhD, Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe 2025), and Dr. Jordan Lane (CSO, ex-AstraZeneca, BenevolentAI, LabGenius), with Didier Landais (former Servier Global Head of Licensing) as Non-Executive Director. Headcount is 11-50, and the company has no disclosed revenue.
Ignota Labs firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Ignota Labs
- Legal name
- Ignota Labs Ltd
- Website
- https://ignotalabs.ai
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2022
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Ignota Labs is a Cambridge-based AI biotech whose SAFEPATH platform uses deep learning with cheminformatics and bioinformatics to identify root causes of drug toxicity and rescue clinical-stage drug candidates abandoned due to safety failures, serving pharmaceutical and biotech companies through asset turnaround and licensing deals.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Ignota Labs industry classification
Industry- Product category
- AI Drug Discovery & Drug Turnaround Platform
- NAICS
- Scientific Research and Development Services (5417), Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (541690)
- SIC
- Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Pharmaceutical Preparations (2834)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Pharmacovigilance & Drug Safety Software (HLAGAJAK)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Safety Pharmacology (Cardio/CNS/Respiratory) (HLAGAFAB), Signal Detection & Safety Analytics (Epidemiology/RWE) (HLAGALAC)
Keywords
Where Ignota Labs is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- London
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices2 records
Markets served
Ignota Labs business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Asset Turnaround and Sale: Ignota Labs acquires or in-licenses abandoned drug candidates, applies SAFEPATH to resolve safety issues, and sells or licenses revived assets back to pharmaceutical companies at a premium. The company takes an in-licensing approach rather than patenting revived compounds, arguing that leveraging existing developer data accelerates the rescue process.
- Co-development and Partnership Deals: Partnerships with pharmaceutical companies (e.g., Sanofi iDEA-Tech Award collaboration) to apply SAFEPATH on co-development of drug assets, generating milestone payments and potential royalties on commercialized revived therapies.
- Clinical Asset Acquisition and Advancement: Acquisition of clinical-stage assets (e.g., Kronos pipeline: CDK9 inhibitor istisociclib and SYK inhibitors entospletinib and lanraplenib) for internal development and eventual commercialization, targeting markets such as CLL ($8B) and ITP ($1.5B).
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels8 records
Ignota Labs product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Ignota Labs uses its proprietary SAFEPATH AI platform to revive promising drug candidates that failed in clinical development due to safety issues. The company combines cheminformatics and bioinformatics with deep learning to identify the molecular root causes of drug toxicity, then develops targeted mitigation strategies. Ignota in-licenses or acquires distressed drug assets, applies SAFEPATH to resolve their safety problems, and sells or licenses the revived assets back to pharmaceutical companies.
Product overview
Ignota Labs operates as an AI drug turnaround company using their SAFEPATH platform to rescue promising but failing drugs. SAFEPATH is a first-of-its-kind AI platform combining cheminformatics and bioinformatics with deep learning to understand toxicity mechanisms. The company builds a pipeline of revived drug candidates, including their first proprietary PDE9A inhibitor for metabolic health and assets acquired from Kronos Bio including CDK9 inhibitor istisociclib and SYK inhibitors entospletinib and lanraplenib.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- SAFEPATH First-of-its-kind AI platform that combines advanced machine learning models with cheminformatics and bioinformatics to enable a deep understanding of drug toxicity mechanisms and provide actionable insights for drug turnaround. Used by Ignota Labs internally to revive abandoned drug candidates and offered to pharmaceutical partners for co-development and mechanistic safety analysis.
- PDE9A Inhibitor First-in-class phosphodiesterase 9A inhibitor in-licensed as Ignota's first proprietary drug asset for metabolic health. Enhances cellular cGMP levels, offering potential treatment for cardiovascular, metabolic, and neurodegenerative diseases, specifically targeted for post-menopausal women's health indications.
- Istisociclib (CDK9 Inhibitor) CDK9 inhibitor acquired from Kronos Bio's clinical pipeline. Demonstrated therapeutic effect in blood cancers but failed development due to safety and clinical positioning challenges. Being evaluated for revival using the SAFEPATH platform.
- Entospletinib (SYK Inhibitor) SYK inhibitor acquired from Kronos Bio targeting autoimmune disorders and blood cancers. Shows clinical benefit for conditions such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL, $8B market) and immune thrombocytopenia purpura (ITP, $1.5B opportunity).
- Lanraplenib (SYK Inhibitor) SYK inhibitor acquired from the Kronos Bio clinical pipeline targeting autoimmune disorders and blood cancers; under evaluation for revival via the SAFEPATH platform.
Quantifiable outcome
- Reduces drug development cost to under $1 million and timeline to under 2 years to reach clinical trials (vs. $10M+ and 7-8 years traditionally)
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use Ignota Labs
Customer profileNamed customers1 record
Segments2 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Ignota Labs technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability14 records
Feature5 records
Ignota Labs partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eight partnerships are on record, tiered key, supporting and core.
- NHS Health Innovation Network South LondonkeyCollaboration between Ignota Labs and NHS Health Innovation Network South London received a 2025 Cross-Sector Experience Award from the Academy of Medical Sciences. The partnership aims to advance AI-enabled reduction of animal testing and demonstrate a pilot for liver-specific cell painting. Antonio Ruiz-Gonzalez joined Ignota as part of this program.
- Genomics EnglandkeyPartnership with Genomics England as part of the Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award project. Ignota uses Genomics England's patient-derived genomics data to identify genetic variations contributing to differential drug responses and predict toxicity risks in diverse sub-populations.
- CytochromasupportingPartnership with Cytochroma as part of the Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award project. Cytochroma provides cell lines derived from diverse donors for validation of toxicity predictions in underrepresented populations, specifically for Gefitinib-induced liver toxicity studies.
- SanoficoreSanofi iDEA-Tech Award partnership focused on 'Determining the Mechanistic Pathways of Hepatotoxicity Liabilities in Small Molecule Drug Projects Using AI.' Award consists of €120,000 in funding plus dedicated support from Sanofi's expert team. Ignota was among the elite 6.8% of applicants selected. Dr. Panuwat Trairatphisan from Sanofi serves as Sanofi Champion of the project.
- TechBio BoostsupportingTechBio Boost is a UK BioIndustry Association and KQ Labs program (supported by London & Partners' Grow London Early Stage programme) providing mentoring, pharma introductions, investor access, and community events for Seed/Series A companies at the interface of biology and data technologies. Ignota accepted for the 2024 cohort.
- Broad InstitutecoreCollaboration with Broad Institute (MIT and Harvard) to study machine learning models for Drug-Induced Liver Injury (DILI) prediction. Produced DILIPredictor model (AUC-PR 0.79, publicly available). Also collaborated on the first public classifiers for FDA Drug-Induced Cardiotoxicity (DICTrank), achieving AUCPR of 0.93.
- Milner Therapeutics InstitutesupportingIgnota Labs named as an affiliated company of the Milner Therapeutics Institute at the University of Cambridge. The institute promotes interactions between affiliated companies and academic, pharmaceutical, or biotech partners, building a cohesive community with an aligned vision. The network includes over 70 organizations.
- Didier LandaissupportingDidier Landais appointed as Non-Executive Director and advisor to the board. He brings 17 years of international experience (including in the USA) as an executive across pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Experience includes 4 years as Global Head of Licensing at Servier, CEO at 4P-Pharma, and COO/CBO at LabGenius.
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Ignota Labs competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- BenevolentAI: AI-driven drug discovery platform combining biomedical knowledge graphs with ML to identify targets and mechanisms. Directly comparable to Ignota's SAFEPATH; CSO Jordan Lane previously led AI drug discovery projects at BenevolentAI.
- LabGenius: Uses ML and automated experimentation to design and optimise therapeutic proteins. Comparable AI-meets-lab biology platform play; CSO Jordan Lane previously worked at LabGenius, and NED Didier Landais was COO/CBO there.
- Recursion Pharmaceuticals: Operates one of the largest AI-driven high-throughput biology platforms to discover and develop small-molecule therapeutics across multiple disease areas. Most established publicly-listed AI-native drug discovery peer with a comparable platform-plus-pipeline model.
- Exscientia: AI-native pharma using a precision medicine platform to design and develop small-molecule drugs. Comparable end-to-end AI drug discovery and partnership-driven model serving Big Pharma.
- Insitro: Combines ML with high-throughput biology and chemistry data to discover therapeutics. Similar platform-plus-pipeline AI drug discovery approach with Big Pharma partnerships.
- Atomwise: AI-driven small-molecule drug design platform using structure-based deep learning. Comparable TechBio platform serving pharma partners with both internal pipeline and discovery collaborations.
- Lantern Pharma: AI-driven oncology drug development platform with a focus on rescuing and re-positioning failed or overlooked oncology candidates. Closest publicly-listed analogue of Ignota's turnaround model.
Broad incumbents
- Isomorphic Labs: Alphabet/DeepMind commercial spin-out applying AlphaFold-derived AI to drug discovery. Overlaps with SAFEPATH's AI-for-drug-safety positioning and has substantially greater resources, though not focused on safety turnaround.
- Schrödinger: Established computational chemistry and physics-based simulation platform with both software licensing and an internal drug discovery pipeline. Comparable in combining physics/ML-based predictive software with a partnered pipeline.
Emerging players
- BPGbio: AI-driven biopharma combining bioinformatics and causal AI to identify and develop therapeutics, with a pipeline that includes revived or repositioned candidates. Partial overlap with Ignota's mechanism-driven drug revival thesis.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Ignota Labs social profiles
Digital presenceIgnota Labs financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Ignota Labs leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles4 records
Ignota Labs funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds2 records
Investors8 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Ignota Labs M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Ignota Labs
What does Ignota Labs do?
Ignota Labs uses its proprietary SAFEPATH AI platform to revive promising drug candidates that failed in clinical development due to safety issues. The company combines cheminformatics and bioinformatics with deep learning to identify the molecular root causes of drug toxicity, then develops targeted mitigation strategies. Ignota in-licenses or acquires distressed drug assets, applies SAFEPATH to resolve their safety problems, and sells or licenses the revived assets back to pharmaceutical companies.
Is Ignota Labs a public or private company?
Ignota Labs is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Ignota Labs founded?
Ignota Labs was founded in 2022. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Ignota Labs based?
Ignota Labs is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does Ignota Labs make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Asset Turnaround and Sale is the primary driver. The others are co-development and Partnership Deals and clinical Asset Acquisition and Advancement.
Who are Ignota Labs's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are BenevolentAI, LabGenius, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Exscientia, Insitro, Atomwise and Lantern Pharma. Broad incumbents are Isomorphic Labs and Schrödinger. BPGbio is listed as an emerging player.
Does Ignota Labs have an API?
No public API is recorded for Ignota Labs.
What industry is Ignota Labs in?
Ignota Labs's product category is AI Drug Discovery & Drug Turnaround Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HLAGAJAK, Pharmacovigilance & Drug Safety Software, with a secondary code of HLAGAFAB, Safety Pharmacology (Cardio/CNS/Respiratory). Its NAICS code is 5417 and its SIC code is 8731.