Good day. Nature is the original source of many of today’s medicines, including chemotherapies for cancer and antibiotics for infections. The chemical compounds plants and microbes produce can serve as starting points for scientists to craft into medicines. Yet pinpointing the best compounds to study historically has been laborious. Boulder, Colo.-based Enveda says it has a shortcut. It has devised an artificial-intelligence-based search engine for natural chemicals with medicinal potential, said Chief Executive Viswa Colluru, who founded Enveda in 2019.

Last month, Enveda moved its first drug into clinical trials, a compound from an undisclosed plant that company scientists modified to turn into a possible treatment for inflammatory conditions, such as the skin disorder atopic dermatitis. Enveda also is researching potential remedies for inflammatory bowel disease and other conditions with the $360 million it has raised from investors such as Lux Capital, True Ventures and the Nature Conservancy, an environmental nonprofit.

We discussed Enveda’s approach with Colluru, a former product manager for Recursion Pharmaceuticals, which applies machine learning to drug discovery and is now publicly traded. Here are excerpts of the conversation:

WSJ Pro: Why do you use nature as your source for drug discovery?

Colluru: We believe fundamentally that since these molecules are the result of billions of years of evolution, this is a highly enriched pool of chemistry that is relevant for life. Nature has already made variations of an individual molecule that we can learn from.

WSJ Pro: What did you learn from your time at Recursion?

Colluru: If you’re a drug company, you need to have drugs. A focus on building internal pipelines is a key lesson. That’s why you’ll see us investing in a full-stack infrastructure so we can take a single natural sample, catalog it and do all the chemistry and biology and toxicology to declare a [drug candidate]. We thought it was very important to put our money where our mouth is.

WSJ Pro: How did you connect with the Nature Conservancy? Why did you want to have it as an investor?

Colluru: They are a limited partner in one of our earliest investors. We figured that given our own dependence on the natural world, our own respect for it, they would be phenomenal partners. They’ve taught us how to put our conservation hat on and talk to global stakeholders.

And now on to the news...

Intel gets $7.9 billion award for U.S. chip-plant construction. The U.S. government is granting Intel $7.87 billion to help fund new chip plants in four states, the largest award in the Biden administration program aimed at reviving American chip-making, The Wall Street Journal reports. The funds are less than the $8.5 billion estimated for Intel in the preliminary award in March. That is because of previously announced funding of up to $3 billion to build secure facilities producing microchips for U.S. military and intelligence applications, according to senior administration officials.

• The grant money, set aside under 2022’s Chips Act, aims to fund a resurgence of U.S. manufacturing to counteract Covid-era supply-chain disruptions and address growing geopolitical tensions with China.

A ransomware attack against a major supply chain technology provider left retailers including Starbucks and U.K. grocery chain Sainsbury’s triggering backup plans to manage operations including scheduling and handling inventories, WSJ reports. Blue Yonder, one of the world’s largest supply chain software providers, said Monday it was working to restore services after the attack last week disrupted systems it hosts for customers.

• Blue Yonder said it didn’t have a timeline for when services would be restored. The company said the attack didn’t affect systems that run on public cloud-based platforms.

Bitcoin prices have surged more than 30% since Election Day. MicroStrategy has climbed even faster, the Journal reports. The software company turned itself into a bitcoin buying machine in 2020 and now holds some $36 billion worth of tokens. For many individual investors, the stock is a more popular bitcoin play than the cryptocurrency itself and they are willing to pay up for it. “MicroStrategy found a way to outperform bitcoin,” Michael Saylor, the company’s founder and executive chairman, said in an interview. “The way that we outperform bitcoin, in essence, is we just lever up bitcoin.”

Trump pledges tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China. President-elect Donald Trump pledged that soon after taking office he will slap steep tariffs on Mexico and Canada, two of America’s closest allies, as well as China, the clearest indication since his election victory that he plans to follow through on the tough campaign rhetoric that helped propel him to the White House, WSJ reports.

• More: How Trump’s Tariffs on China Changed U.S. Trade, in Charts

Halcyon, an Austin, Texas-based antiransomware platform, closed a $100 million Series C round. Evolution Equity Partners led the investment, with Managing Partner Richard Seewald joining the company’s board.

Vitara Biomedical, a Philadelphia-based neonatal-care provider, completed a $50 million Series B round led by Sands Capital.

Range, a McLean, Va.-based wealth-management platform, landed $28 million in Series B funding. Cathay Innovation led the investment, with Partner Simon Wu joining the board.

Ampeco, a Bulgaria-based electric vehicle charging-management provider, raised $26 million in Series B funding led by Revaia.

Kyan Health, a Zurich-based workplace wellness platform, has picked up $16.7 million in funding, including a $12.7 million Series A led by Swisscom Ventures. Victoria Lietha, investment director at Swisscom Ventures, will join the board.

Biolevate, a French AI software startup helping to speed up the medical writing process, collected €6 million in seed funding led by EQT Ventures.

• AI ads can look weird. Brands like Coca-Cola are making them anyway.

• California’s Newsom vows to offer EV rebates if Trump cuts $7,500 federal tax credit

• Musk says he wants to save the planet. Tesla’s factories are making it dirtier.

• NBC ready to pay triple to gobble up Thanksgiving parade broadcast rights

• These bricks-and-mortar stores thrive in an online world

• Bitcoin prices aren't far off $100,000. Here's the recent runup in perspective.

• San Francisco Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie taps OpenAI’s Sam Altman and other business leaders for help with transition (CNBC)
   
• Is European tech fed up with conferences? (Sifted)
   
• This CEO says there's 'not much value' to job interviews. He prefers testing candidates instead. (Business Insider)

This newsletter was compiled by Matthew Strozier and Zachary Cole.

WSJ Pro Venture Capital is a premium service of The Wall Street Journal. We cover venture capital and the global startup ecosystem. Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The Team: Matthew Strozier, Yuliya Chernova, Brian Gormley, Angus Loten and Marc Vartabedian.

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