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Cyclica Acquisition by Recursion Pharmaceuticals Closes

May 29, 2023

GreenSky Ventures is proud to announce that one of its portfolio holding companies, Cyclica Inc., was purchased by Recursion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: RXRX) in an all-share deal which was announced on May 8, 2023 and closed on May 25, 2023. 

Headquartered in Toronto, Cyclica built a proprietary, early-stage drug discovery platform that provides statistical rankings of on- and off-target effects of a small molecule drug in the human body. Recursion is headquartered in Salt Lake City and has a complementary business in the in silico drug discovery industry. Recursion also announced the contemporaneous acquisition of Montreal-based Valence. More details can be found in the Cyclica press release here, and the Recursion press release here.

GreenSky’s relationship with Cyclica was lengthy and extensive: GreenSky saw the company through many ups and downs. Managing Partner Greg Stewart first encountered Cyclica at a business plan competition at the Rotman School of Management in 2011, before the company raised its first cheque. Managing Partner Michael List has served on the company’s board for eight years. Several of GreenSky’s funds invested in the company. 

“It has been a pleasure to work alongside the Cyclica team over the years and we are thrilled to have played a part in the company’s growth and its merger with Recursion,” said List, “We believe that the combination of these companies will be greater than the sum of its parts. While markets are extraordinarily complex, we believe that the 50%+ increase in the Recursion share price since the transaction was announced is a great validation of the strength of the combined entity.”

GreenSky would like to acknowledge the accomplishments of the entire Cyclica team, particularly CEO Naheed Kurji, Founder Jason Mitakidis, Chief Innovation Officer Andreas Windemuth, and long-time Scientific Advisor Shoshana Wodak. GreenSky extends our sincere congratulations to the entire Cyclica team, and we look forward to seeing substantial improvements in human health coming from Recursion in the years ahead.