What iktos-dev does

Iktos is a Paris-based AI and robotics company founded in 2016 that develops an integrated platform for small-molecule drug discovery spanning the full Design-Make-Test-Analyze (DMTA) cycle. Its three core products are Makya, a generative AI SaaS platform trained on millions of reactions that designs novel, synthetically accessible molecules with multi-parametric optimization across potency, selectivity, and ADMET properties; Spaya, an AI-driven retrosynthesis engine using reinforcement learning and Monte Carlo Tree Search to convert targets into commercially available starting materials in seconds; and Ilaka, an AI orchestration layer that transforms virtual molecules into executable instructions for Chemspeed robotic systems running 100+ reactions per day across 55+ named reactions. The Iktos Robotics Biology platform adds high-throughput phenotypic screening via the proprietary MTBench technology for protein-protein, RNA-protein, and molecular glue/PROTAC discovery, and the Iktos Engine APIs extend the stack with production-ready 3D design tools (Iktos 3D Align, Iktos 3D Dock, Boltz 3D Affinity).

The company generates revenue through three streams: SaaS subscriptions for Makya and Spaya (web and API access), fee-for-service and co-development drug discovery collaborations with pharmaceutical, biotech, and academic partners, and technology licensing — including transfer of Ilaka to pharma partners running Chemspeed robots. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed. Since founding, Iktos reports 60+ collaborations with major pharmaceutical companies (Merck, Pfizer, Servier, Janssen, Takeda, Pierre Fabre, Italfarmaco), biotech firms (Cube Biotech, Sygnature Discovery), and academic institutions, with one Servier strategic collaboration carrying potential total value exceeding €1 billion. Following a €15.5M Series A in 2023, Iktos has expanded into in-house drug discovery, maintaining a pipeline across MTHFD2 (inflammation/autoimmune), Amylin receptor (obesity/metabolism), and SKP2-CKS1 (immuno-oncology). Operations span Europe (Paris HQ), the United States, and Japan/APAC (Iktos K.K. subsidiary).

Name

iktos-dev

Legal name

Iktos SA

Website

https://iktos.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Iktos is a Paris-based AI and robotics company developing Makya (generative AI drug design), Spaya (AI retrosynthesis), and Ilaka (robotic lab orchestration) into an integrated small-molecule drug discovery platform serving pharmaceutical, biotech, and academic partners globally.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

AI-Driven Drug Discovery Software

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Computer Systems Design Services (541512)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

AI/ML Platforms for Drug Discovery & Experiment Optimization (HLAGAJAO)

Keywords

• Generative AI drug design
• AI retrosynthesis planning
• Automated drug discovery
• AI-orchestrated laboratory automation
• Computational chemistry platforms

Headquarters

HQ city

Paris

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Drug Discovery Collaborations: Fee-for-service and co-development collaborations with pharmaceutical, biotech, and academic institutions for drug discovery programs. Partners engage Iktos to access AI-driven generative design, retrosynthesis planning, and robotic synthesis capabilities to advance their own programs from hit discovery through lead optimization. Collaboration structure includes both transactional service fees and potentially co-development arrangements with milestone payments.
2. SaaS Platform Subscriptions (Makya, Spaya): Subscription-based access to Makya (generative AI drug design SaaS) and Spaya (AI-driven retrosynthesis SaaS) platforms. Platforms available via web interface and API access. Spaya API enables high-throughput scoring of synthetic feasibility for computational chemistry pipelines. Pricing likely subscription-based with potential usage-based API components.
3. Technology Licensing and Integration: Licensing of Iktos technologies including Ilaka orchestration software for integration with third-party robotic platforms, and Spaya API for embedding in partner workflows. Technology transfer to pharmaceutical partners for deployment of AI-driven synthesis workflows.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Iktos develops and sells an integrated AI and robotics platform for small-molecule drug discovery. Its core offerings are the Makya generative AI SaaS for de novo molecular design, the Spaya AI-driven retrosynthesis SaaS, the Ilaka orchestration software that connects designs to Chemspeed robotic synthesis, and the Iktos Engine APIs for 3D drug design. The platform enables pharmaceutical and biotech partners to execute the full Design-Make-Test-Analyze (DMTA) cycle.

Product overview

Iktos offers an integrated AI and robotics platform for drug discovery comprising three core products: Makya (generative AI for de novo molecular design), Spaya (AI-driven retrosynthesis planning), and Ilaka/Iktos Robotics (AI-orchestrated laboratory automation). The platform operates as a unified DMTA (Design-Make-Test-Analyze) cycle, where Makya generates optimized molecules, Spaya identifies synthesis routes, and Ilaka coordinates robotic execution. Additional offerings include Iktos Engine APIs for 3D drug design and MTBench for phenotypic screening. The company also maintains an internal pipeline of drug candidates in oncology, inflammation, and metabolism.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Makya Makya is a generative AI SaaS platform for de novo small-molecule drug design. It creates diverse, novel, and synthetically accessible medchem-like molecules using multi-parametric optimization, 3D ligand-based and structure-based modeling, SAR modeling, and ADMET property optimization. It is targeted at medicinal and computational chemistry teams in pharmaceutical and biotech companies.
• Spaya Spaya is an AI-driven retrosynthesis SaaS platform that identifies feasible synthetic routes by converting target compounds into commercially available starting materials in seconds. It uses reinforcement learning and Monte Carlo Tree Search, supports 35+ provider partnerships, 2000+ named reactions, customizable constraints, and chirality handling. It is used by computational chemistry teams in pharma and biotech for synthetic feasibility scoring.
• Ilaka Ilaka is an AI-driven laboratory orchestration software that transforms virtual molecules into executable instructions for Chemspeed robotic systems. It orchestrates the full decision workflow from retrosynthesis and reaction selection to reagent sourcing, experimental procedures, and synthesis scheduling, including AI-driven reaction clustering for parallel execution. It is licensed to pharmaceutical partners seeking to deploy AI-orchestrated laboratory automation.
• Iktos Engine APIs Iktos Engine APIs are production-ready APIs for 3D drug design workflows. The suite includes Iktos 3D Align for template-based ligand alignment, Iktos 3D Dock for pocket-aware template-based docking, and Boltz 3D Affinity for binding affinity prediction. The APIs address ligand-based and structure-based design decisions across hit-to-lead optimization projects and integrate with Knime, Pipeline Pilot, and Jupyter Notebook.
• Iktos Robotics Chemistry and Biology Iktos Robotics is a fully automated synthesis, purification, and analysis platform using Chemspeed robotics, capable of running 100 reactions per day in parallel across more than 55 different named reactions. Iktos Robotics Biology includes high-throughput phenotypic assays using patented Microtubule Bench technology for in-cellulo screening of protein-protein interactions, RNA-protein interactions, and molecular glues/PROTACs.

Quantifiable outcome

• Discovery phase timeline reduced from 4-5 years to under 2 years for preclinical candidate identification
• +6 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

AI capability8 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and secondary.

• Chemspeed Technologies (a Bruker company)coreTechnology or Integration · 26 March 2026Collaboration to offer pharmaceutical partners a solution combining advanced synthesis planning and orchestration AI software with Chemspeed robotics for chemical synthesis execution. Iktos makes available the Ilaka AI-driven laboratory orchestration technology developed for the Chemspeed chemistry automation platform. Ilaka transforms virtual molecules into executable instructions for Chemspeed robotic systems, orchestrating the full decision workflow from retrosynthesis to reagent sourcing, experimental procedures, and synthesis scheduling. Partnership enables technology transfer to pharmaceutical partners seeking to deploy AI-orchestrated laboratory automation.
• Elsevier (Reaxys)coreTechnology or IntegrationStrategic partnership combining the world's largest chemistry database Reaxys with Iktos's cutting-edge AI retrosynthesis technology to create new predictive retrosynthesis and synthetic accessibility tools. Integrates Elsevier's chemistry data infrastructure with Iktos's Spaya platform capabilities.
• Cube BiotechcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership to co-develop novel Amylin receptor agonists for obesity and cardiometabolic disorders. Cube's cutting-edge protein stabilization technology preserves the natural conformation of membrane proteins, enabling access to biologically active drug targets. Combined with Iktos's AI-driven drug discovery platform, this collaboration aims to accelerate development of breakthrough small molecule therapies targeting the Amylin receptor for oral administration.
• Sygnature DiscoverysecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on small-molecule PolQ polymerase domain inhibitors. Leveraged AI-generated ligand design from Iktos, with synthesis and evaluation expertise from Sygnature Discovery. Resulted in identification of a novel oxime-based scaffold and generation of highly potent functionalized oxime PolQ inhibitors with promising ADME properties. Published in ACS Omega.
• ServiercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrategic collaboration deal with potential total value over €1 billion for co-development of drug candidates. Servier leverages Iktos's integrated AI and robotics platform for drug discovery programs. Represents Iktos's largest disclosed co-development partnership by value.
• AWS (Amazon Web Services)secondaryTechnology or IntegrationIktos uses AWS cloud infrastructure for its AI-driven drug discovery platform. Featured in the AWS Pioneers Project, showcasing how Iktos leverages AWS cloud, AI agents, and generative AI to solve drug discovery challenges. Platform available on AWS with autoscaling capabilities.
• ETH ZurichsecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic collaboration on peptide cheminformatics research, published in Drug Discovery Today (Elsevier). Joint research on computational approaches in peptide drug discovery covering representation, similarity assessments, machine/deep learning models, and peptide design.
• Novo NordisksecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic collaboration on peptide cheminformatics research, published in Drug Discovery Today (Elsevier). Joint research on computational tools to streamline peptide drug discovery.
• Institut Curie / INSERM / IBENS / Ecole Normale Superieure / Mines ParisTech / Universite Paris Cite / Biophenics LaboratorysecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on large-scale compound selection guided by cell painting research published in Communications Biology (Springer-Nature). Research on phenotypic profiling for navigating chemical space using the JUMP-CP dataset and developing Phenoseeker web tool.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves14 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Direct peers

• Exscientia: Pioneer in AI-driven small-molecule drug discovery using generative design and active learning. Directly comparable to Iktos in offering generative AI design + automated synthesis + pharma collaborations, with a larger disclosed pipeline and public-company scale.
• XtalPi: AI + robotics drug discovery combining quantum physics, ML, and automated synthesis labs. Strongest analog to Iktos on the AI-and-robotics integration angle, with a larger scale and broader CRO offering.
• Atomwise: AI-driven small-molecule discovery using convolutional neural networks for structure-based design. Directly comparable to Iktos in target identification, hit generation, and pharma collaboration business model.
• Insilico Medicine: End-to-end AI drug discovery platform covering target ID, generative chemistry, and clinical development. Comparable to Iktos in combining AI-driven small-molecule design with internal pipeline programs and pharma partnerships, with deeper capital base.
• Schrödinger: Computational chemistry platform combining physics-based modeling (FEP+) with ML for small-molecule design. Comparable to Iktos as a software-and-services pharma R&D platform, with overlapping SaaS products and co-development deals.
• BenevolentAI: AI platform for drug discovery combining knowledge graphs with ML to identify novel targets and molecules. Comparable to Iktos in operating a platform-plus-pipeline model serving pharma collaborators.
• Recursion: AI-driven drug discovery combining high-throughput biology, automated labs, and foundation models. Directly comparable to Iktos in integrating automated experimentation with ML-driven design, with a stronger focus on phenotypic screening at industrial scale.

Emerging players

• Arctoris: Robotics-driven drug discovery platform combining automated biology and chemistry with AI. Comparable to Iktos on the autonomous-lab integration thesis, at an earlier stage and narrower scope.
• Cradle Bio: Generative AI platform focused on protein and biologics design. Partially comparable to Iktos as a generative AI-for-discovery peer, though Cradle emphasizes biologics rather than small molecules.

Broad incumbents

• Isomorphic Labs: Alphabet-owned AI drug discovery company spun out of DeepMind. Operates broadly across the same AI-driven small-molecule discovery space as Iktos but with vastly greater capital and computational resources.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/iktos/engine
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/iktos

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles14 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about iktos-dev