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AI firm founded in Dundee coffee shop in merger to create $2 billion company

A company founded in a Dundee coffee shop has merged with a US giant.

Staff at Exscientia's Dundee office.
Staff at Exscientia's Dundee office.

A pharmaceutical company founded in a Dundee coffee shop has merged with a US giant to form a business worth more than $2 billion.

Exscientia is a spin-out business from Dundee University, started by scandal-hit Andrew Hopkins and two others in 2012.

The firm still has offices in the city at Dundee One, but Hopkins was removed as CEO earlier this year after allegations of “inappropriate” relationships with two members of staff emerged.

A leading research company, Exscientia uses AI to help design drugs which can dramatically reduce the time taken to develop medicines.

They will merge with US-based Recursion, a clinical stage TechBio firm which uses biology to “radically improve lives”.

Exscientia merger worth ‘billions’

Based on its share price, Exscientia has a value of around $390 million while Recursion is valued at around $1.74bn, making a combined business worth more than $2bn.

Exscientia is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange in New York. Its share price has dropped 28.57% in the last six months.

Recursion is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah and has offices in Toronto, Montreal and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Recursion said the merger had the potential for approximately “$200 million in milestone payments” over the next two years and “over $20 bn overall before potential royalties over the course of the partnership”.

An annual saving of approximately $100 million is also expected, Recursion said.

Chris Gibson, co-founder and CEO of Recursion, said: “Our mission at Recursion is to decode biology to radically improve lives.

“We are leading the industry by integrating technology to map and navigate biology and chemistry to achieve this ambitious aim.

“Today, with the announcement of our proposed combination with Exscientia, we leap closer to our vision of a full-stack technology-enabled small molecule discovery platform that we are confident has the potential to meaningfully improve the efficiency of drug discovery in the coming decade.

“The culmination of this vision, which we will build together with the team from Exscientia, will be the broader availability of high quality medicines and lower prices for consumers.”

Hopkins removed as Exscientia boss

Hopkins was removed as CEO of the company he built from the ground-up in February 2024.

He was also removed from his role as executive director of the board.

Professor Andrew Hopkins is founder and chief executive of Exscientia. Image: Kim Cessford/DC Thomson.

At the time, Exscientia said in a statement: “The board’s decision was taken following an investigation which found that Dr Hopkins had engaged in relationships with two employees that the board determined were inappropriate and inconsistent with the company’s standards and values.”

After establishing Exscientia, success came quickly with a series of multi-million-pound deals with global drug companies and an Oxford office added in 2017.

Hopkins received a CBE for services to science and innovation in King Charles’ New Year Honours List.

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