Michigan small biotech startup Circnova Having raised $3.3 million in seed rounds for its technology, it targeted what it called “circular RNA” using AI. The development project is a new approach that can quickly develop treatments for diseases that currently do not have medications to treat.
For co-founder and CEO Crystal Brown, the new funding is also a victory lap, and they have taken an unconventional path to becoming the founder of biotech.
RNA or ribonucleic acid is a key molecule that helps convert genetic information into proteins. Circular RNA is a relatively newly discovered category that forms a circle rather than a strand. It regulates critical biological processes and hopes that therapies based on these molecules can target complex health problems.
Brown told TechCrunch that Circnova developed a “proprietary AI engine that enables us to identify, design and produce novel, non-coded circular RNAs.”
It is an AI engine similar to Google Alphafold, which also uses deep learning AI (rather than some kind of LLM) to generate and analyze new circular RNA for use in therapy.
Circnova not only owns Novaengine, it says it is the first person in the world to predict circular RNA structures, but also has a wet lab. Brown said that means its AI engine produces actual physical molecules themselves, which can then be validated and researched in collaboration with the University of Michigan.
“We can reverse engineers. We can go from sequence to structure. When developing molecules, we can go from structure to sequence,” she said.
She described it.
The technology is based on the work of Joe Deangelo, chief scientific officer of startups and CEO of Biotech Neohromosoms and former CEO of Circnova, former CEO of Apex Bioscience CSO. Investor William Grenawitzke is chief business officer and the third co-founder of the startup.
Failed start of course
Brown seems to be the founder of such a company because she didn’t work in the automotive industry until about seven years ago.
She thought she was climbing the ladder and becoming a “C-Suite Automotive Executive” when a friend of her introduced her to the CEO of a life science startup. Startup CEOs are looking for business managers.
Curiously, Brown is willing to keep the book part-time, which evolved to bring business strategies to her from the auto factory to help startups, such as overhauling their business contracts.
She raised questions about science to the team until some of her friends told her she should quit the car and work full-time in biotech.
“I thought, no one would take me seriously. I never studied biology. I studied Poli Sci and women’s research,” she recalls.
But she made a leap anyway, cutting huge salaries from her high-paying six-figure job to reach an internship-level salary. She learned about startups, raised funds, and worked hard for the business director. She said the company went public and gave her enough health to spend to buy a home.
With success, she founded her own biotech startup, a contract research lab.
She raised funds and then made all the classic first basic mistakes. “I hired people so quickly. I opened my lab,” she said.
For two years, her startup burned through its funds and she knew she had to shut it down. It hurt her heart and her bank account. She recalled that she even lost the house.
But Brown recalls that she has earned a remarkable reputation in Michigan’s tight startup community, and venture capitalists told her: “You’re a good founder anyway.” Some say they are willing to fund her next idea.
DeAngelo knew she would soon develop a new joint venture, so she began sending her scientific materials to the circular RNA. He wondered how to use it with AI drug discovery.
“He started sending me my dispatches every day at 5:30 a.m., five to 10 posts,” she recalled. “I didn’t even close another company all the way.”
But she researched it and was sure the idea could work. They founded Circnova in May 2023.
“I got into it with great caution and just threw a few things. How can I handle the $15,000 grant to get started?”
The first spending developed the startup’s first process, while a grant from the National Science Foundation developed another $25,000 to obtain the first patent application.
She began to separate her time between Michigan and Boston, close to clients, and wishlist clients like Moderna and Pfizer.
As for betting on Brown again, VCs like Nia Batts, general partner of United Heritage, have no problem with this.
“When you’re on an entrepreneurial journey, we’re no stranger to the resilience we need,” Butts said, adding that she knew she wanted to support this new cause “at the time” she met Brown and heard about it. Had this idea.
The $3.3 million seed round is led by investments from VC South Loop Ventures, including investments from Dug Song, Union Heritage, Michigan Rise, Invest Detroit, Kalamazoo Forward Ventures and Spark Capital.
