Pioneering drug discovery platform company, HotHouse Therapeutics has successfully closed a £2.9m pre-seed funding round to transform modern medicine by developing sustainable, scalable pharmaceutical compounds through AI-optimised plant-based chemistry.
The investment – from SynBioVen, Start Codon, UKI2S, Twin Path Ventures, Wren Capital, a number of angel investors and an Innovate UK grant – comes as the Norwich-based startup emerges from stealth mode, where the team has been deploying its platform to solve one of the vaccine industry’s most pressing problems: the global dependence on a single, unsustainable source of the critical adjuvant, QS-21.
Today, QS-21 is sourced from the bark of a slow-growing Chilean tree, a fragile and resource-intensive supply chain that cannot meet global demand and disproportionately affects low- and middle-income countries. HotHouse Therapeutics aims to replace this bottleneck with bioengineered plant systems that can be grown anywhere for predictable, affordable, low impact manufacturing.
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HotHouse Therapeutic’s AI-powered plant bioengineering system can design and grow new chemistry in days, creating a scalable, carbon-positive supply chain that improves global access, especially for developing countries where affordability and availability remain critical barriers. While the initial focus is on vaccine adjuvants, the company is already planning its first traditional drug discovery programmes, using its platform to identify and then progress assets through to clinical development.
HotHouse Therapeutics uses a transient plant expression system to reprogramme plants, turning the leaves into living laboratories to reach a chemical space that traditional labs cannot. Its BotanAI design engine and BotanBIO production system work in tandem to rapidly generate natural and entirely new-to-nature molecules, delivered as high purity, single entity compounds on accelerated timelines.
CEO David Sheppard says: “We grow greener medicines using a platform that makes the impossible accessible. The drug discovery field desperately needs new chemical space and the vaccine field needs new adjuvants, with supply chains that work for everyone. By combining AI with plant engineering, we can reach molecules others cannot, and scale them in a way that supports global health, not just high-income markets.”
Sheppard brings deep experience across drug discovery, platform development and company building, and has spent the past year shaping HotHouse Therapeutics into a full-strength team across AI, natural product biology, purification science and chemistry.
He continues: “Our mission is simple. Unlock powerful chemistry, make it sustainable, and get it into the hands of the partners who can deliver vaccines and therapeutics to patients across the globe.”
This scientific capability is built on a foundation of world-class plant bioscience. The company’s platform originates from the pioneering work of Professor Anne Osbourn OBE, FRS, Novozymes Prize Laureate 2023 and an international member of the US National Academy of Sciences. A global authority on plant natural product pathways, Prof Osbourn’s research has proved that complex molecules like QS-21 can be entirely biosynthesised in plants. Her expertise anchors a team of experienced plant biologists, chemists and AI engineers.
HotHouse Therapeutics’ first commercial focus is a suite of next-generation saponin-based adjuvants, including sustainable access to QS-21, QS-7 and a large library of novel derivatives.
The HotHouse Therapeutics platform can currently unlock over 20 million novel molecules by combining AI-driven pathway prediction with the enzymatic diversity of the plant kingdom. Its carbon positive and vertical farm-ready production system strengthens long-term affordability and sustainability, offering a meaningful alternative to extractive or resource-heavy chemistry.
Early preclinical data comparing the company’s adjuvant candidates to QS-21 will support upcoming partnerships with vaccine developers, global health organisations and biopharma companies.
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