Promise Bio Secures $8.3M Funding with Support from AstraZeneca and Pfizer

Promise Bio, a startup revolutionizing the treatment of immune-mediated diseases with cutting-edge precision medicine solutions, has emerged from stealth mode with a $8.3 million seed investment. The funding round was led by Awz Ventures, with additional backing from AION Labs, supported by AstraZeneca and Pfizer, who also invested in Jnana Therapeutics. The round also includes a grant from the Israel Innovation Authority.

This investment will accelerate the development of Promise Bio’s innovative computational platform, which leverages epiproteomics and AI to predict patient treatment responses and aid in drug research and development. The funding will enhance the company’s ability to scale its technology and expand its research capabilities.

Cloud-based AI platform for healthcare

Promise Bio, founded in 2023 in Tel Aviv by Ronel Veksler and Dr. Assaf Kacen, aims to revolutionize the treatment of autoimmune diseases. The company’s platform is built on years of foundational research conducted by Dr. Kacen in collaboration with Prof. Yifat Merbl at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Their groundbreaking work on protein modifications and immune responses has paved the way for the development of Promise Bio’s innovative computational platform.

Featured in Nature Biotechnology in 2023, the research focuses on protein modifications and immune responses, laying the groundwork for Promise Bio’s platform. Dr. Kacen expanded on this research to create a system that enables large-scale profiling of numerous post-translational modifications (PTMs) from mass spectrometry data—without requiring custom chemical enrichment or additional lab procedures. This breakthrough will help researchers uncover disease mechanisms, tailor treatments, and identify new drug targets.

“Asking whether a protein level or blood count change reflects a complex immune response is like viewing a low-resolution black-and-white TV screen,” explained Dr. Kacen, Co-Founder & CTO of Promise Bio. “Our platform captures the modifications proteins undergo due to disease. By using machine learning, we can interpret these changes as a high-resolution, colorized view of the underlying biology.”

Ronel Veksler, Co-Founder & CEO of Promise Bio, added, “Current biological treatments for autoimmune diseases don’t work for all patients—only 30-40% achieve significant remission. Our goal is to eliminate the trial-and-error approach by enabling data-driven decision-making. The key is understanding the changes that proteins undergo after their formation. Our PROMISE (Protein Modification Integrated Search Engine) platform does just that, bringing us closer to precision medicine for autoimmune diseases.”