Because

itmatters

Annual Report 2023

Strategic report

1 Highlights

2 At a glance

6 Investment case

7 Chair’s statement

10 CEO’s statement

12 Operational review

14 Market overview

16 Business model

18 Strategy

20 KPIs

24 Stakeholder

engagement

26 Sustainability

38 Financial review

41 Risks

Governance

46 Board of Directors

48 Executive

LeadershipTeam

50 Corporate Governance

Statement

51 Corporate Governance

report

65 Audit, Finance and

RiskCommittee report

68 Nomination

andGovernance

Committeereport

74 Research and

Development

Committee report

76 Remuneration

Committee report

91 Responsibility

statement by the Board

of Directors

Financial statements

92 Independent

auditor’sreport

96 Consolidated statement

of comprehensive

income

97 Consolidated statement

of financial position

98 Consolidated statement

of changes in equity

99 Consolidated statement

of cash flows

100 Notes to the

financialinformation

BenevolentAI (Company)

Annual Accounts

130 Management report

132 Responsibility

statement by the Board

of Directors

133 Independent

auditor’sreport

136 Balance sheet

137 Profit and loss account

138 Notes to the

annualaccounts

Other information

146 Glossary

148 Shareholder

information

Contents

A leader in applying advanced AI

toaccelerate biopharma drug

discovery blending science and

technology with a focus on finding

solutions for complex diseases.

To view our site visit:

www.benevolent.com

Consolidated Management Report

The Consolidated Management Report for the Group

includes the Strategic report and Governance section.

Strategic report

Highlights

Operational highlights Corporate highlights

(including post-period)

Financial highlights

Revenue

£7. 3m

(2022: £10.6m)

primarily reflecting decreased

revenues from the AstraZeneca

collaboration partly offset by the

newMerck collaboration

Normalised operating loss

£72.7m

(2022: £94.6m)

Normalised research and

development (R&D) spend,

(exc. SBP)

£56.5m

(2022: £65.1m)

Reported R&D spend

excluding SBP of

£60.3m

(2022: £65.1 million)

Reported operating loss

£77.6m

(2022: £197.0m)

Cash, cash equivalents

andshort-term deposits

£72.9m

(31 December 2022: £130.2m)

compared with £84.3 million

at30June 2023 (unaudited)

Operating cash outflow

£54.6m

(2022: £67.8m)

before changes to working capital

Signed a major deal with Pharma

partner and progressed own

pipeline assets

• New strategic collaboration signed

with Merck KGaA. The agreement

includes payments to BenevolentAI

of up to $594 million to deliver novel

drug candidates against, initially,

three targets in oncology, neurology

and immunology. In addition to a low

double-digit million-dollar upfront

payment, BenevolentAI could potentially

receive payments on development

and commercial milestones as well

astiered royalties on net sales.

• Lead asset for the treatment of

ulcerative colitis (UC) progressed

into the clinic. As expected, during

the year, the Company initiated a

Phase Ia clinical study for BEN-8744,

an oral phosphodiesterase 10 (PDE10)

inhibitor, with topline data readout

expected Q1 2024.

• Successfully progressed

glioblastoma multiforme (GBM)

asset to IND-ready status. BEN-

28010 is an oral brain-penetrant CHK1

inhibitor for the treatment of GBM

and metastatic brain tumours which

completed regulatory IND-enabling

studies during the year to plan.

• IND-enabling studies ongoing for

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)

asset. BEN-34172 is an oral, potent

and selective brain-penetrant RARɑβ

(retinoic acid receptor alpha beta)

selective agonist. Drug substance

manufacturing scale-up was completed

during the period and is expected to be

IND ready by mid-2024.

• No further investment in BEN-2293

for atopic dermatitis (AD). As

announced in May, the Company

confirmed there will be no further

investment in BEN-2293 following its

Phase IIa study results in AD earlier

in the year, where the safety and

tolerability primary endpoints were

successfully met but the efficacy

secondary endpoints were not.

• Completed strategic review. During

the period, the Company completed

a strategic review of operations

to focus the business on its drug

discovery collaborations and five high

potential assets in its proprietary

pipeline as well as exploring a new

expansion opportunity in Knowledge

Exploration tools.

• Knowledge Exploration tools

assessment nearing completion.

During the year initial product

development was substantially

completed alongside user testing.

Current market assessment is

underway with results expected in

early Q2 2024 and will determine if or

how this opportunity fits into the wider

commercial strategy forthe Company.

• Further enhancement and

investment in the Benevolent

Platform

in key areas.

Work continues to expand the

capabilities, offerings and prediction

methodology of the platform to

further assist both our collaboration

partners and our own internal

drugprogrammes.

Continued to strengthen the Board

and Leadership team

• Appointed accomplished R&D

leader, Dr. Joerg Moeller as CEO

and Executive Director, post-

period, in January 2024. Following

the resignation of Joanna Shields

as CEO and Executive Director in

September 2023, Dr. François Nader,

the Non-Executive Chair of the Board,

temporarily assumed the additional

role of Acting CEO from September

2023 until January 2024.

• Significant appointments to the

Leadership team. In September, the

Company appointed Catherine Isted

as Chief Financial Officer and Christina

Busmalis as Chief Revenue Officer.

• Further strengthening of the Board.

Marcello Damiani was also appointed

as an Independent Non-Executive

Director during the year.

Strategic report

1BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Option 1

At a glance

Ingestion & Insight Extraction Data Integration &Inference

Structured

Ontologies & Databases etc.

Unstructured (NLP)

Literature, Patents, Trials etc.

Genetics & Omics

sc(RNASeq), Epigenetics etc.

Clinical

Biobank, Partner cohorts etc.

Experimental

ELNs, Assay results etc.

Chemistry

Binding, structural, MoA etc.

Protein Structure

Binding site analysis etc.

Comprehensive foundations reduce bias and

gaps, breaking down therapeutic silos

85+ data sources

By applying proprietary advanced AI tools, in

combination with in-house scientific expertise and wet-

lab facilities, BenevolentAI is well positioned to identify

and accelerate novel drug discovery.

The Company’s business model presents multiple routes

for value creation including discovery collaborations

with pharma companies like AstraZeneca and Merck,

advancing in-house pipelines to inflection points, and

commercialising a suite of knowledge exploration tools.

Headquartered in London, with wet labs in Cambridge

(UK) and an office in New York, BenevolentAI is at the

forefront of reshaping the future of drug discovery and

delivering innovative medicines.

The Benevolent Platform™

A versatile, scalable and robust AI-enabled drug

discovery platform built with expert scientists,

leveraging multimodal data foundations

At BenevolentAI, we serve patients by leveraging our proprietary and

validated Benevolent Platform™ that integrates AI and science to uncover

new biology, predict novel targets and develop first-in-class or best-in-class

drugs for complex diseases.

Data Foundations

(Knowledge Graph)

2 BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Strategic report

AI-Driven Drug Discovery

&Development Tools

Proprietary AI technologies applied to

specific DD problems + state of the art

wet lab and scientific capabilities

• Clinical Subtyping

• Mechanism Recommendation

• Target Prediction & Assessment

• In silico led HitID

• In silico led LeadOp

• Biomarker Assessment

• Indication and Drug Repurposing

The Benevolent Platform

integrates technology, processes,

and humans for faster and

higher-quality R&D success

• Technology tailored for discovery with:

• Unique data foundations from multiple

data types curated and purpose-built for

drug discovery

• Explainable AI models that enable

scientists to see rationale for predictions

• Applications across therapeutic areas

andmodalities

• Precision workflows merge the strengths of

AI & data analytics with insights derived from

scientists’ strategic oversight and intuition

• R&D Experts employ the tools to ensure that

deep domain expertise guides every phase

of development

3BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Strategic report

At a glance continued

BenevolentAI’s highly differentiated proprietary pipeline

Best-in-class and first-in-class

Programme Indication Target Chemistry &

Lead Opt

Preclinical Phase 1 Phase 2

BEN-8744 Ulcerative

Colitis

PDE10

BEN-28010 Glioblastoma

Multiforme

CHK1

BEN-34712 ALS RARaB

Parkinson’s

Disease

Novel Target

Fibrosis Novel Target

Regular re-evaluation of 10+ BenevolentAI paused programmes and potential new pipeline entries:

• demonstrates utility to find novel insights previously not connect in the literature; and

• develop and advance unique and differentiated molecules.

Validated Benevolent

Platform

Phase Ia topline data readout: Q1 2024

IND-ready: Q4 2023 – completed

IND-ready: Q2 2024

Strategic report

BenevolentAI Annual Report 20234

FDA Approved drug –

provennovelindication

expansion

Identified rapidly through our Platform

• Through our Platform, we identified baricitinib,

a rheumatoid arthritis drug owned by Eli Lilly,

as a potential COVID-19 treatment

• Identified novel biology through our

data/algorithms - previously unknown

antiviral mechanism

• Led to equity investment in BenevolentAI

by Eli Lilly

• Led to FDA emergency use approval in

November 2020 and full approval in May 2022

• Effective COV-BARRIER trial showed baricitinib

reduces mortality by 38% in hospitalised

patients, and by 46% in ventilated or

ECMO patients

Strategic collaborations

Leverages our end-to-end drug discovery

offerings enabled by our Platform – validated

by our collaborations with AstraZeneca and

MerckKGaA

• Validation of Target-ID: Multi-year collaboration

delivering novel targets for complex diseases

• 2019 initial deal and expanded in 2022

• Deal structure of upfront fee, milestone

payments and downstream royalties

• Three therapeutic areas: Chronic Kidney

Disease, Heart Failure & Systemic lupus

erythematosus

See case study

onpage 9

• Validation of novel compound ID: Multi-year

collaboration identifying and developing

innovative small molecule compounds,

through Hit-ID to preclinical stage

• Uses our wet-lab capabilities – initial delivery of

three novel small molecule drug candidates

• Deal signed in September 2023

• Up to $594 million total value, low double-

digit million dollar upfront fee, discovery,

development and commercial milestone

payments and tiered royalties on any net sales

• Three therapeutic areas: oncology,

neurology,immunology

See case study

onpage 9

Strategic report

5BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Investment case

Clear, growing market demand

from Biopharma to leverage AI

in drug discovery and increase

probability of success

Leading end-to-end Drug

Discovery offerings, validated

through industry collaborations

with AstraZeneca and Merck

5 6

New expansion opportunity

through suite of Knowledge

Exploration tools thatleverage

bio-specific natural language

processing and large

languagemodels

Pioneer and leader

inAI-augmented drug

discovery, enabled by the

BenevolentPlatform™

Business model offers multiple

routes for revenue generation and

value creation:

End-to-end drug discovery

Preclinical & clinical

development pipeline

Knowledge

Exploration Tools

High potential Preclinical & clinical

development pipeline with

strategic optionality delivering

financial upside; lead asset

BEN-8744 in Phase Ia

BenevolentAI Annual Report 20236

Strategic report

Chair’s statement

Focus on delivering cutting-edge AI driven

drug discovery

We have made significant progress in executing on our

strategic plan and our revenue generating business

model that is driven by the Benevolent Platform™,

despite 2023 being a challenging year and a transition

period for the Company. With continued investment

in our platform we will be able to continue to leverage

it to drive and support our revenue pillars, enabling us

and our partners to deliver life-changing medicines

topatients.

Importantly, in January 2024, we announced the

appointment of Dr. Joerg Moeller as our new CEO.

Joerg’s experience as an outstanding leader with

extensive experience across all stages of R&D and

a strong advocate of AI as a driver of discovery

innovation and effectiveness will be key as we progress

further delivering on our patient-centric revenue

generating strategy.

During the period, we strengthened our leadership

team with the appointment of Catherine Isted as

our Chief Financial Officer and Christina Busmalis

as Chief Revenue Officer, a newly created role, as we

increased our commercial capabilities to maximise the

opportunities derived from the Benevolent Platform™.

A year of

transition

To ensure that we are efficiently and properly resourced

for future growth, we refocused our business following a

strategic review in May 2023 that resulted in an extension

of our cash runway, improvement of our capital efficiency

and operational effectiveness whilst retaining the critical

capabilities needed to drive value creation.

Governance and Board

Our Board remains committed to the principles of good

corporate governance. As a Luxembourg-registered

company that is traded on Euronext Amsterdam, our

corporate governance framework is based on applicable

Luxembourg laws, the Company’s Articles of Association

and its internal regulations, in particular the Rules of the

Board. The Company adopted the Quoted Companies

Alliance (QCA) Corporate Governance Code 2018 (the

“QCA Code”) that provides an appropriate and suitable

governance framework for a group of our size and

complexity. The application of the QCA Code supports

the Company’s long-term success whilst simultaneously

managing risks and provides an underlying framework

of commitment and transparent communications

withstakeholders.

As we look forward, we are

excited for the opportunity

to deliver on our mission

of bringing life-changing

therapies to patients.

Dr. François Nader

Chair

7BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Strategic report

Chair’s statement continued

Governance and Board continued

Throughout the year and the beginning of 2024 we

made good progress in strengthening our Board

ensuring we are well-positioned to drive the Company

through its next phase of growth. On the Board, Jean

Raby was appointed as Senior Independent Director,

Dr. John Orloff as Workforce NED and we welcomed the

appointment of Marcello Damiani as an Independent

Non-Executive Director. Dr. Jackie Hunter retired from

the Board as a Non-Executive Director having served

on the Board of the Company and its predecessors

since 2016.

After five years as CEO and Executive Board Director,

Joanna Shields stepped down from both roles in

September 2023 and I assumed the role of Acting

CEO while maintaining my Chair of the Board role and

responsibilities in order to provide the Company with

continuity whilst the search process was underway. In

January 2024, following the appointment of Dr. Joerg

Moeller as CEO and Executive Director, I reverted to

my position of Independent Non-Executive Chair of

the Board.

The Board recognises the benefits that diversity

brings and the importance of having a balance of

perspectives, insights and challenge. Consequently,

the Board approved its Diversity Policy in March 2023.

The Board also recognises the importance of providing

new Directors with a thorough induction and ensuring

that Directors’ skills and knowledge are refreshed and

updated regularly, given the dynamic business and

regulatory environment in which the Company operates.

Consequently, the Board developed acomprehensive

induction and annual Board training and development

programme during the year.

A formal and rigorous evaluation of the effectiveness

of the Board, its committees, the Chair and individual

Directors is now undertaken on an annual basis. The 2023

evaluation was internally facilitated and concluded that

the Board and its committees continue to be effective,

all Directors continue to make valuable contributions

based on experience and knowledge, demonstrate

considerable commitment and time to their roles and the

Non‑ExecutiveDirectors provide constructivechallenge.

Further information on governance during the year,

including ESG, can be found in the Sustainability report

and the Governance report.

Building a sustainable business for our

employees, partners and patients

At BenevolentAI we serve patients by leveraging our

proprietary and validated Benevolent Platform™ that

integrates AI and science to uncover new biology, predict

novel targets and develop first‑in‑class or best‑in‑class

drugs for complex diseases. We are committed to

upholding our values and this includes a responsible and

sustainable approach to our business and enhancing

our platform, advancing our pipeline, supporting our

partners, investing in our people and communities

and reducing our impact on the planet and governing

ouroperations.

We aim to build and empower a diverse and inclusive

workforce to find innovative solutions that benefit our

business our partners and the patients we serve. Our

goal is to contribute positively to society by pushing

the boundaries of technology and science to address

significant unmet medical needs by developing new

medicines for a broad range of undertreated diseases.

We are proud of the progress we have made this year

and remain committed to continuous innovation and

excellence in science and technology.

8 BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Strategic report

Strategic collaboration

withMerckKGaA

Leverages end-to-end Drug Discovery

capabilities including our wet lab facility

inCambridge (UK)

Identify and develop innovative small molecule

compounds, through Hit Identification to

preclinical stage

Initial delivery of three novel small molecule

drugcandidates

Case study: Partnerships

End-to End Drug Discovery

Commitment to deliver on our mission of

uniting science and technology to serve

patients with complex diseases

With clarity on our strategic focus geared towards

value creation and with our revenue pillars providing

a business model that is driven by the Benevolent

Platform™, we have an engaging vision for a successful,

sustainable and long-term future for the Company as

one of the leaders in AI driven drug discovery. Applying

advanced AI to accelerate biopharma drug discovery

is increasingly becoming accepted and validated with

long-term structural trends supporting its growth and

I believe we are well placed to benefit from this trend

for future success. As we look forward, we are excited for

the opportunity to deliver on our mission of bringing

life-changing therapies to patients.

Along with the rest of the Board I am looking forward

to working with Dr. Joerg Moeller, our new CEO. Under

Joerg’s leadership, our focus will remain on continuing

to invest in our platform to leverage revenue generation

and commercial focus, improving our operational

effectiveness, and fostering a culture of excellence

andinnovation.

I am grateful to all our stakeholders for their support

during this turnaround period for the Company and,

along with the rest of the Board and the Leadership

Team, remain committed to fulfilling our mission and

value creation.

Dr. François Nader

Chair

19 March 2024

Therapeutic areas

Oncology Neurology Immunology

Financial terms

• Up to $594 million of total value, including:

• Low double-digit million dollar

upfront payment

• Discovery, development and

commercialmilestones

• Tiered royalties on net sales of any

commercialised products

9BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Strategic report

CEO’s statement

Focused on

delivering

cutting edge

AI-driven drug

discovery

I am excited by the opportunity to lead BenevolentAI as

its new CEO and, with the opportunities ahead of us, to

further capitalise on our platform, pipeline and research

capabilities in order to strengthen the Company’s

market position with an increased commercial focus.

Fostering a culture of excellence, innovation and diversity

is something I am passionate about, and since joining

the Company I am ever more convinced of the potential

of the Benevolent Platform™ and our AI-enabled drug

discovery offerings, pipeline and the potential that we

have to drive value creation.

Despite 2023 being a transition period for the Company,

BenevolentAI achieved a number of key milestones

including a significant collaboration signed with Merck

KGaA. With a clear business model and strategic focus to

generate revenue and growth driven by the Benevolent

Platform™, we are well-placed to deliver on our strategic

priorities going forward.

Delivering on our strategic plan

Commercial and platform validation

Signing a new strategic collaboration with Merck KGaA

was an important milestone for the Company and one

that has significant medium‑term revenue potential.

Thiscollaboration also provides continued validation both

commercially and for our platform and demonstrates

the breadth of our end-to-end drug discovery offerings

and capabilities. Further collaborations are critical to

the future success of the business, and we will look to

expand on our current partnerships during the course

of the year.

Innovation and further platform validation

Given my background in R&D and being a strong

advocate of the application of AI to drug discovery

driving innovation and efficiency, of particular interest

is the Company’s lead asset. BEN-8744 is an oral PDE10

inhibitor for the treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC)

targeting patients with moderate to severe disease.

BEN-8744 progressed into a Phase Ia clinical study in

August 2023 and top-line data is expected in Q1 2024.

The success of this asset is particularly important for

the Company, as its discovery validates the ability of

the Benevolent Platform™ to identify novel targets for

evaluation. By generating hypotheses at the Target

Identification stage, the platform identified PDE10 as

an entirely novel target for the treatment of UC, with no

previously known link established between PDE10 and

UC. The target was subsequently validated ex-vivo, with

BenevolentAI’s molecular design expertise enabling

rapid lead optimisation. BEN-8744 was nominated as

a candidate in September 2021, only two years after

programmeinitiation.

I am ever more convinced

of the potential of the

Benevolent Platform™

and our AI enabled drug

discovery offerings, pipeline

and the potential that we

have to drive value creation.

Dr. Joerg Moeller

Chief Executive Officer

10 BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Strategic report

The BEN‑8744 Phase Ia study is in healthy volunteer

safety and tolerability study. This asset has a novel

therapeutic approach and is a potential first‑in‑class

peripherally restricted small molecule for the treatment

of UC with the potential for meaningful differentiation

from existing immunosuppressive standard-of-care

treatments, through disease‑modifying efficacy. In line

with our strategy, it has always been the Company’s

intention to out-license or partner this asset with this

being done at the optimal value creation inflection point.

Assessing a potential new expansion opportunity

The expansion opportunity of our new customisable

SaaS products and suite of Knowledge Exploration Tools

substantially completed initial product development

during the year. As with any potential new product

launch, it is essential that a thorough and current market

assessment is completed for any go-to-market plan to

be successful. As such, a market assessment is underway.

The results of this will be complete in early Q2 2024 and

will determine how this opportunity fits into the wider

commercial strategy for the Company.

Outlook

Our priority for 2024 is to focus on delivering cutting

edge AI-driven drug discovery capabilities and revenues

leveraging the Benevolent Platform™. Importantly,

we will also strive to increase operational effectiveness

and have greater commercial focus whilst prioritising

successful delivery of the project plans for our existing

strategic collaborations, advance our internal pipeline

and generate value creation through an aggressive

commercial strategy. While we are currently excited as

we wait for the top line data readout of our lead asset

BEN-8744 in Q1 2024, we are committed to adding at

least one new collaboration, as well as out license at least

one of our proprietary assets, during the course of the

year. I look forward to leading the Company and working

with the excellent team we have here at BenevolentAI to

execute on the next stage of growth and value creation

for shareholders, whilst delivering on our mission of

developing life-changing medicines for patients.

Dr. Joerg Moeller

Chief Executive Officer

19 March 2024

11BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Strategic report

Operational review

Signed major deal with Pharma

partner and progressed own

pipeline assets

Overview

During 2023, the Company undertook a strategic review

of its operations to right-size the business, focus on its

drug discovery collaborations and five high potential

assets from its proprietary pipeline, as well as to explore

a new expansion opportunity in knowledge exploration

tools, all of which are driven from and enabled through

the Benevolent Platform™.

The Company also continued to invest in further

enhancement of the Benevolent Platform™ to further

expand its capabilities, strengthened the leadership

team and brought in Dr. Joerg Moeller as the Company’s

new CEO post period end.

End-to-end drug discovery collaborations

End-to-end collaborations utilise the Company’s

capabilities and the Benevolent Platform™ to enable

novel discoveries throughout the drug discovery

process. The Company receives upfront payments,

milestones, and royalties from collaborations. In 2023,

the collaboration with AstraZeneca continued and a new

strategic collaboration was signed with Merck KGaA.

Merck: New strategic collaboration in identification

and development of novel compounds

In September, a new collaboration with Merck KGaA

was signed utilising BenevolentAI’s end-to-end platform

capabilities to deliver novel drug candidates, initially for

three targets in oncology, neurology and immunology.

The Company will identify and develop innovative

compounds, through Hit Identification to preclinical

stage. The agreement includes payments to

BenevolentAI of up to $594 million, consisting of a

low double-digit million dollar upfront payment on

signing and then potentially discovery, development

and commercial milestones. Tiered royalties will also be

payable on net sales of any commercialised products.

AstraZeneca: Target Identification collaboration

The multi‑year Target Identification collaboration with

AstraZeneca has been the main revenue generator

for the Company before and post-listing. From the

initial collaboration signed in 2019, AstraZeneca is now

focusing on the chronic kidney disease indication and

is progressing one of the targets within this area. The

collaboration with AstraZeneca was expanded in 2022

to include target identification within heart failure and

systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), with progress being

made towards further target selection within these

indications. Each novel target selected by AstraZeneca

has the potential to generate significant milestones and

royalties for BenevolentAI.

Clinical and preclinical pipeline

In April, the Company announced top-line Phase IIa

study results for its topical pan‑Trk inhibitor, BEN‑2293,

in mild‑ to‑moderate AD. The study successfully met its

primary endpoint with BEN-2293 found to be safe and

well tolerated. Secondary efficacy endpoints, to reduce

itch and inflammation, were not achieved. Subsequently,

in May the Company confirmed there would be no

additional spend on this asset.

Following a strategic review of the pipeline, in May

2023, the Company confirmed that five most advanced

and high-potential clinical and preclinical assets

are being progressed to their next value inflection

point. Allthese programmes are either first‑in‑class

or best-in-class assets providing novel therapeutic

opportunities and all have been developed by leveraging

BenevolentAI’s platform.

In August, the Company initiated a Phase Ia study for

its lead asset, BEN-8744, an oral phosphodiesterase 10

(PDE10) inhibitor intended for the treatment of UC. This

asset has a novel therapeutic approach and is a potential

first‑in‑class peripherally restricted small molecule for

the treatment of UC with the potential for meaningful

differentiation from existing immunosuppressive

standard-of-care treatments, through disease-modifying

efficacy. The topline data readout from this study is

expected in Q1 2024.

BEN-28010 is an oral brain penetrant CHK1 inhibitor

under development as a potential first‑in‑class CNS

penetrant drug for GBM and metastatic brain tumours

with the potential for meaningful differentiation in

efficacy in patients resistant to chemotherapeutic

standard of care agents and the potential to be used in

combination therapy approaches. During the period,

the Company made further progress with BEN-28010’s

preclinical development, having successfully completed

all IND-enabling studies in line with the timelines the

Company had previously flagged.

12 BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Strategic report

In June, the Company announced the progression of

BEN-34712, a preclinical candidate for the potential

treatment of ALS, into IND-enabling studies. BEN-34712

is an oral, potent and selective brain penetrant RARɑβ

(retinoic acid receptor alpha beta) selective agonist

under development as a potential best-in-class

treatment for ALS. BEN‑34712 isexpected to be

IND-ready by Q2 2024.

The Company has also prioritised two earlier‑stage

assets: one in Parkinson’s disease and another in fibrosis

(neurodegenerative and immunological diseases). Both

are currently in the chemistry lead optimisation stage.

The Parkinson’s disease asset is a potential first‑in‑class

CNS penetrant drug with neuroprotective activity and

the fibrosis asset is a first‑in‑class approach to targeting

an underlying mechanisms of fibrotic diseases.

Additionally, post the strategic review of the pipeline in

the summer of 2023, the Company has in excess of ten

programmes that have been paused. The Company

conducts regular re-evaluation of these programmes

aswell as assessing potential new portfolio entries.

Knowledge Exploration Tools

The Knowledge Exploration Tools pillar is a potential new

expansion opportunity developing customisable SaaS

products that seek to enable scientists to make higher-

confidence decisions and improve R&D productivity.

Initial product development was substantially completed

during the year alongside user testing with potential

customers and partners. A current market assessment is

underway and the results will be completed in early Q2

2024 which will determine if or how this opportunity fits

into the Company’s wider commercial strategy.

The Benevolent Platform™

The Benevolent Platform

delivers novel insights

from public, proprietary and inferred knowledge

across multiple therapeutic areas. The unique data

foundations come from more than 85 data types curated

and purpose-built for drug discovery. During the year,

BenevolentAI continued to enhance the platform in key

areas such as target identification offerings, adding new

data through the single-cell analysis pipeline, updating

our disease approach to use patient data derived

mechanisms. We also developed a new way of predicting

and explaining the rationale behind target predictions

building on our expertise in large language models

(LLMs); enabling better use of multimodal data as part

of model predictions, and improved explainability of the

evidence and rationale supporting target predictions,

which is key for scientists. All of these developments

continue to further enhance the Benevolent Platform™

to help identify novel targets and compounds for

both our own priority pipeline and also that of our

collaboration partners.

Corporate and organisational developments

During the year new appointments were made across

the Board and the Leadership Team adding further

expertise to ensure that the Company’s leadership is

wellpositioned to drive the next phase of growth.

In September, Joanna Shields stepped down as CEO and

Executive Director and Dr. François Nader assumed the

role of Acting CEO in addition to his role as Chair. Post-

period end, in January 2024, the Company welcomed

the appointment of Dr. Joerg Moeller as CEO and

Executive Director and Dr. François Nader reverted to

his position of Independent Non-Executive Chair of the

Board. Dr.Joerg Moeller, MD, PhD, brings a wealth of

experience to BenevolentAI. During his career, he has led

global R&D organisations, initiated several drug discovery

collaborations with AI platform companies, served as

EVP, Head of Global Research and Development and

Member of the Global Leadership Team of LEO Pharma

A/S. He also previously served at Bayer AG for over 20

years where he held various executive roles culminating

in his appointment as EVP, Head of Pharmaceuticals

Research and Development and Member of the

Executive Committee of the Pharmaceuticals

Division of Bayer.

Other changes to the Board included welcoming Marcello

Damiani to the Company in May as a new Independent

Non-Executive Director and in June the retirement of

Dr.Jackie Hunter as a Non‑Executive Director.

In September the Leadership Team was strengthened

by two new appointments: Catherine Isted joined as our

Chief Financial Officer and Christina Busmalis joined

as our new Chief Revenue Officer, as we establish and

execute our patient-centric revenue generation strategy

across all BenevolentAI’s pillars.

Organisationally, following the strategic review in May,

the Company’s headcount was reduced by circa. 30%,

to 248 employees by year end, including headcount

retained for the Merck collaboration. Importantly the

business preserved key skills, expertise and capabilities

so as not to impact future revenue generation. This,

along with other select reductions in spend, reduced

the Company’s cash burn by around 40%, extending

the cash runway to at least mid-2025, before taking

into consideration any unsigned revenue such as that

from out-licensing assets, end-to-end collaborations or

knowledge exploration tools.

13BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Strategic report

Innovation to increase efficiency remains key in

healthcare broadly. AI‑powered efficiencies have already

started to make a positive impact at different stages of

the drug development process and AI is becoming an

accepted and validated approach to drug discovery with

long-term structural trends supporting the growth.

Artificial intelligence in drug development is an area

where to date there has been success from a time and

cost perspective in discovery up to preclinical stages.

Drugs developed through AI approaches are entering

the clinic and it will be this critical test where these drugs

will also deliver proof on the key benefit of improving

on standard of care and/or increasing the probability

of success. Whilst time and cost savings are helpful,

modelling shows it will be improvements in probability

of success in the clinic that delivers the biggest impact

from AI in drug discovery and a step change in the

economics of R&D.

Market overview

1. phrma.org and Harrison (2016).

2. https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/

s12916-015-0494-1.

3. Novasecta Ltd.

Source: Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 15 Dec 2016.

By using the Benevolent Platform™, we aim to improve

efficiencies from a time and cost perspective but also

improve the probability of success for developing

medicines as they progress through the clinic as well as

demonstrating the generation of truly novel candidates

that will take longer to validate.

Overview of current drug discovery limitations

Drug discovery and development is characteristically

slow and risky. 96% of new drug programmes and over

half of Phase II/III clinical trials end in failure and, of those

that succeed, an average investment of $2.6billion is

required to bring a drug through R&D to the market –

aprocess that takes on average ten years

. Even when

a new drug does make it to market, it is likely to be

ineffective for 50% to 70% of patients

. Many companies

currently rely on just one data type for their drug

discovery predictions, using, for example, only imaging

or publicly available gene expression databases. As

a consequence and also due to the siloed nature of

pharmaceutical R&D where teams focus on a specific

indication their data may not reflect the underlying

diversity or connections within disease. For complex

multifactorial disorders, such as autoimmune conditions

and central nervous system disorders, the underlying

mechanisms of disease remain poorly understood,

despite the exponential growth of biomedical research

and over $160 billion of investment per year is being

spent on drug research and development worldwide

6% Commercial

52% Efficacy

3% Operational

24% Safety

15% Strategy

Figure 1: Reason underlying failure

Worldwide Prescription Drug Sales 2012-2028:

Actual& Growth

US$ (billion)

1,600

1,400

1,200

1,000

800

600

400

200

+18

+16

+14

+12

+10

-2

-4

Growth (%)

Source: Evaluate Ltd.

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Market overview

Despite complexities facing the global pharmaceutical sector on what kind of assets to

develop or acquire and multiple legislative, regulatory and commercial unknowns, the

sector’s near-term growth trajectory is still forecast to grow at a compounded annual rate

of 5.9% from 2022 to 2028, reaching almost $1.6trillion.

14 BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Strategic report

An article in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery from

2016 highlights the core of the challenge. Reviewing

the reported causes of drug candidate attrition by

clinical development phase and by therapeutic area

for the period 2013−2015 revealed that there were 218

reported failures between Phase II (including phase I/

II) and submission. Of these failures, 174 had stated

the reason for the failure and these were used in the

subsequent analysis.

A number of changes in the frequency of reasons for

termination of Phase II and Phase III clinical trials over

the past seven years were noted. Efficacy was still the

greatest reason for failure, but the hope expressed at

the time was that this can change as trial populations

are increasingly stratified using efficacy biomarkers

and understanding of disease biology and target

selection improve.

The potential of AI in drug discovery

Over the past decade, the field of artificial intelligence

has progressed enormously with major advances in

machine learning, neural networks, deep learning,

generative AI and other areas. The potential to apply AI

techniques to accelerate and improve drug discovery

has gathered growing interest from the pharmaceutical

industry, tech companies and funders of biomedical

research. AI has the potential to change the economics of

innovation, allowing new medicines to be discovered for

a much wider set of conditions and patient segments.

Computational biology is not new to pharmaceutical

R&D but the emergence of AI drug discovery companies

has been driven by a number of key drivers:

• increase and expansion of computational power;

• increase in the number of pharmaceutically relevant

databases that are amenable to quantitative

analysis; and

• increase in the use and capabilities of machine learning.

This approach enables AI drug discovery companies

to engage with pharmaceutical companies with their

offerings into therapeutic areas of interest whilst

offering different potential benefits and with the goal to

improve the traditional drug discovery and development

process (by reducing costs, timelines and improving

the probability of success) but not to re-invent it in

a new form.

However, AI in drug discovery is not a zero sum game

and not one AI approach will solve all problems in

different parts of the R&D process. We are seeing that

some pharmaceutical companies are building certain AI

capabilities themselves while others are now partnering

with multiple companies taking a broader approach to

what works in certain use cases.

Critically, we must not underestimate the importance

of human expertise. Combining AI’s pattern recognition

with human expertise is where the best results will be.

Source: Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 15 Dec 2016.

10% Commercial

55% Efficacy

7% Operational

14% Safety

14% Strategy

Figure 3: Reason for failure in Phase 3

Source: Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 15 Dec 2016.

3% Commercial

48% Efficacy

3% Operational

25% Safety

21% Strategy

Figure 2: Reason for failure in Phase 2

15BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Strategic report

Business model

New expansion

opportunities

The Benevolent Platform™ drives

our three revenue streams

Established

business

Preclinical

and clinical

development

pipeline

Platform generated

assets

• Five high potential assets

• Potentially first-in-class

or best-in-class assets

providing novel therapeutic

opportunities

• Progressing assets to

significant inflection points

Knowledge

Exploration

Tools

New customisable

SaaS products

• Suite of AI products that

surface data, perform

analysis, and give scientific

recommendations

• BenAI-Q and BenAI

Research Assistant

products enabling

enhanced decision making

• Building from our

coretechnologies to

develop innovative ways

toserve customers

andtheir scientists

End-to-end drug

discovery

Drug discovery offerings

• Platform enables novel

discoveries throughout the

drug discovery process

• Continuing to expand

on our industry-leading

collaborations

• Validated by collaborations

with AstraZeneca and Merck

See Operational review

onpage 12

See Our pipeline

onpage28

See Market overview

onpage 14

High value

collaborations

Upfront payments +

milestones + royalties

Mid to long-term

valuecreation

Upfront fees +

milestones + royalties

Highly scalable,

recurring revenue

Fees for setup,

platformlicences

andseats + ongoing

support services

16 BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Strategic report

17BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Strategy

Our mission as an

AI augmented drug

discovery company

is to unite science

and technology to

serve patients with

complex diseases

“Because it matters”

Delivering on our

strategic plan

Delivering on our strategic plan to maintain our

position as one of the leaders in applying advanced

AI to accelerate biopharma drug discovery.

Our strategic priorities are designed to create

sustainable long-term growth.

Preclinical

and clinical

development

pipeline

Pipeline assets

• BEN-8744 for ulcerative colitis

in a Phase Ia clinical trial in

August 2023, with topline data

readout expected in Q1 2024

• BEN-28010 for GBM completed

IND-enabling studies

• BEN-34712 for ALS in

IND-enabling studies

2024 priorities:

• Deliver BEN-8744 topline

results in Q1

• Complete BEN-34712 IND-

enabling packages by Q2

• Progress early discovery

pipeline assets

• Out-license one pipeline asset

End-to-end drug

discovery

collaboration

• New multi-year, tech-enabled

collaboration

• Commercial validation

of our end-to-end Drug

Discovery platform

• BenevolentAI to

identify and develop

innovative compounds

2024 priorities:

• Continued focus on

delivering the project plan for

AstraZeneca and Merck

• Sign a new collaboration

agreement similar to

AstraZeneca or Merck

See Business model

onpage 16

See Our pipeline

onpage28

1: 2:

18 BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Strategic report

Business

operations

Leadership

• Dr. Joerg Moeller appointed

CEO (post-period, Jan’24)

• Catherine Isted appointed

asChief Financial Officer

• Christina Busmalis appointed

as Chief Revenue Officer

Operational

• Strategic review led to cash

runway extension to at

least mid-2025

2024 priorities:

• Significant emphasis on

operational effectiveness and

agreater commercial focus

Knowledge

Exploration

New Knowledge

Exploration tools

• Initial product development

substantially completed

alongside user testing

• Further market

assessment underway

2024 priorities:

• Complete further market

assessment to determine

strategic priority

See Operational review

onpage 12

See Board of Directors

onpage 46

3: 4:

19BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Strategic report

Financial KPIs

Revenue (£m)

2023

7.3

2022

10.6

KPIs

Measuring our

performance

The Group uses a range of financial

and non-financial KPIs to measure

strategicperformance.

Cash, cash equivalents

and short term deposits

at year end (£m)

2023

72.9

2022

130.2

Why it is a KPI:

Availability of sufficient liquidity

is important for funding

BenevolentAI’s strategy, R&D

investment in our pipeline and

development assets, as well as

investment to drive innovation

across the BenevolentAI Platform

2023 performance:

A strategic review in May resulted

in an extension of the cash runway

to at least mid‑2025. This is before

any future unsigned revenue and

with a reduction in cash burn by

around 40%.

Why it is a KPI:

Revenue, being a statutory

performance measure, is a KPI as

it drives cash generation. The KPI

is the total of revenues generated

by the Company’s business model

that comprises:

• monetising the Company’s

platform through commercial

end-to-end drug discovery

collaborations;

• developing the Company’s own

pipeline of wholly owned assets

with the aim of out-licensing

or partnering assets at certain

inflection points; and

• a new expansion opportunity

of Knowledge Exploration

Tools that is currently being

assessed for the current

commercial opportunity and

user testing is underweight

withpotentialcustomers.

2023 performance:

The Group’s revenues have

decreased from £10.6 million to £7.3

million. The decrease in revenue is

primarily reflecting the decreased

revenuesfrom the AstraZeneca

collaboration partly offset by

thenew Merckcollaboration.

20 BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Strategic report

Non-financial KPIs

Pipeline progression

performance measures

Next inflection point

2023

Why is it a KPI:

Successful progression of our

pipeline is key to creating long-

term value. Our pipeline assets

are highly differentiated and a

mix of potentially first‑in‑class

andbest‑in‑class.

Following a strategic review

of the Company’s pipeline, in

May, the Company confirmed

five of its most advanced and

high-potential clinical and

preclinical assets originated by the

Benevolent™ Platform are being

progressed to their appropriate

value inflection points. In excess

of ten programmes were paused

and the Company makes regular

re-evaluation of these programmes

as well as assessing potential new

portfolio entries. The Company will

aim to out-license assets at given

inflection points.

2023 performance:

In April, the Company announced

top-line Phase IIa study results

for its topical pan‑Trk inhibitor,

BEN-2293, in mild-to-moderate

AD. The study successfully met its

primary endpoint with BEN-2293

found to be safe and well tolerated.

Secondary efficacy endpoints, to

reduce itch and inflammation,

were not achieved. Based on these

results, the Company decided to

stop any further investment on

this asset.

In August, our lead asset, BEN-

8744, an oral phosphodiesterase 10

(PDE10) inhibitor for the treatment

of UC progressed into a Phase Ia

clinical study.

During the period the Company

made further progress with BEN-

28010’s preclinical development,

having successfully completed all

IND-enabling studies in line with

stated timelines, the asset was

IND‑ready by Q4. This is an oral

brain penetrant CHK1 inhibitor

for the treatment of GBM and

metastatic brain tumours.

Progressed BEN-34712, an oral,

potent and selective brain

penetrant RARɑβ (retinoic acid

receptor alpha beta) selective

agonist fortreatment of ALS

intoIND‑enabling studies.

Partners/Collaborations

Collaborations signed

intheyear

2023

2022

Why is it a KPI:

Collaborations are key to

generating near and longer-term

revenue as well as validation of

our Platform.

2023 performance:

Through our end‑to‑end drug

discovery offerings we continued

to focus on the delivery of

the successful AstraZeneca

partnership and signed a new

strategic collaboration with

MerckinSeptember.

21BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Strategic report

Non-financial KPIs continued

KPIs continued

P e o p l e

Staff attrition (%)

2023

18.2

2022

15.7

Why is it a KPI:

At BenevolentAI, we are highly

dependent on the capabilities,

creativity and motivation of our

employees for our future growth

and success. We operate in an

extremely complex domain, and

therefore losing highly trained

employees can have a negative

effect on our delivery, particularly

when these people are deemed

critical talent.

2023 performance:

Following the strategic review in

May, the Company considered

its cost base and organisational

structure and reduced its

headcount by c.30% with 248

employees by year end. Expectedly

in a period of change, this resulted

in an overall increase for 2023 in

voluntary turnover rate compared

to 2022 (excluding the impact of

the strategic review). Following

the collective consultation

process, it was a key priority to

re‑build the culture andemployee

engagement of theorganisation

and plans were put in place to

achieve this.

Why is it a KPI:

We continue to invest and enhance our Platform that drives our revenue

streams and, to ensure we maintain our leading position as one of the

leaders in AI-driven drug discovery.

2023 performance:

During 2023 the Platform continued to deliver and support the

Company’s partnerships and collaborations. We continued to further

enhance the Benevolent Platform

in key areas such as target

identification offerings, adding new data through the single‑cell analysis

pipeline, updating our disease approach to use patient data derived

mechanisms, and improving our core benchmarking dataset using

the clinical outcomes dataset. A new state-of-the-art target prediction

methodology was also introduced, which continues to enhance the

previous target prediction fleet and target explanations.

The Knowledge Exploration Tools pillar is a potential new expansion

opportunity developing customisable SaaS products that look seek to

enable scientists to make higher‑confidence decisions and improve

R&Dproductivity.

Initial product development was substantially completed during the year

alongside user testing with potential customers and partners. Current

market assessment is underway to determine if or how this opportunity

fits into the Company’s the wider commercial strategy for the Company.

Benevolent Platform™

22 BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Strategic report

BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023 23

Stakeholder engagement

Employees

Our people believe in the purpose of the

Company and share its vision. Effective

engagement aligns employees with the

Company’s strong culture and core values.

Why they are important to the Company

Our people are fundamental to our success

and future growth. We need to acquire,

retain and develop a talented and diverse

workforce in a competitive environment.

It is vital that we maintain our culture and

align employees with our purpose.

Why the Company is importanttothem

The Company has a diverse workforce

and that is recognised as a key asset of

the business. It is important to continue

our goal to build an inclusive, supportive

and engaging workplace that enables

employees to collaborate, innovate and

thrive.

How we engaged

• We encourage a culture of open

communication through a range of

two-way mediums including monthly

All Hands, regular social events

such as quizzes and themed social

events, newsletters and other digital

communications and providing internal

training. We also run regular diversity

and inclusion events.

• The Board appointed Dr. John Orloff to

the role of designated Non-Executive

Director for employee engagement

(Workforce NED) in March 2023.

Further information on the employee

engagement activities of the Workforce

NED and how the Board monitors culture

can be found on pages 59 to 61.

Outcomes of engagement

• Innovation.

• Employee engagement.

• Learning & development.

• Purpose and culture.

• Diversity and inclusion.

• Workplace safety and wellbeing.

Shareholders

Engagement with the Company’s

shareholders is key to its success, and

effective communication with shareholders

is an important part of the Board’s

responsibilities as well as evaluating the

effectiveness of shareholder engagement

that is monitored for effectiveness for all

our shareholders.

Why they are important totheCompany

The support of our shareholders is an

important factor in the success of the

growth and sustainability of our business.

Why the Company is importanttothem

Our shareholders want to generate a

positive long-term return from their

investment. Our shareholders want to

understand our long-term strategy and

how we plan to sustain value creation,

together with shorter-term plans

and communication of our progress.

Transparent communication as set out

below and good corporate governance is

also important to shareholders.

How we engaged

• Regulatory announcements

andpress releases.

• Investor roadshows/meetings.

• Annual Report and Accounts.

• Annual General Meeting; we encourage

all shareholders to attend, providing a

forum and time for shareholders to meet

the Board, asking questions at the AGM

or submitting them beforehand.

• Company website.

• Conferences.

• Analyst briefing, research meetings

and events.

• Dedicated investor email address,

investors@benevolentai.com.

• The CEO, Co-Founder, CFO and VP

Investor Relations, communicate

regularly with our shareholders,

and ensure that their views are

communicated back to the Board.

Outcomes of engagement

• The Company’s shareholders play an

important role in the governance of

the Company by ensuring their views

are brought into Board discussions

andconsidered in decision making.

Patients

Our mission is to unite science and

technology to serve patients with

complexdiseases.

Why they are important totheCompany

Patients are at the heart of what we do.

We were founded to harness the power of

the vast and growing corpus of biomedical

data to understand the underlying cause

of disease that ultimately leads to more

effective drugs for patients in need.

Why the Company is importanttothem

Too many patients are suffering from

untreated or poorly treated diseases.

Weput patients first, and use our Platform

and expertise to expand the search for new

treatments and increasing the probability

of success.

How we engaged

• We seek to address the needs of patients

by maintaining an in-depth appreciation

of clinical innovation, as well as

understand the respective therapeutic

needs. The CSO consults with key

clinical opinion leaders, patient advocacy

companies and regulatory experts.

The R&D Committee also brings broad

strategic perspective and expertise.

TheCSO regularly updates the Board

onthe results of such consultations.

Outcomes of engagement

• Ethical and effective design of clinical

studies and protocols.

• Medicines that meaningfully improve

apatient’s life.

• Medicines that are valuable to society

and patients alike.

BenevolentAI’s mission as an AI augmented

drug discovery company is to unite science

and technology to serve patients with

complex diseases.

Our purpose has always centred on having a positive

impact on society, and we are committed to running

our business in a sustainable and ethical way. For more

details on the Company’s approach to sustainability,

please see pages 26 to 37 of this report.

24 BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Strategic report

Partners and

collaborators

We partner with leading pharmaceutical

and biotech companies to tackle

therapeutic challenges from new angles

and develop novel drugs for complex

diseases, and with non-commercial

collaborators to broaden our positive

societal impact.

Why they are important totheCompany

Commercial collaborations provide revenue,

further validate our platform and ultimately

our goal to deliver maximum impact

to patients. Academic collaborations

allow us to access the best science and

stimulate innovation, and non-commercial

collaborations put our platform to good

usefor wider societal benefit.

Why the Company is importanttothem

Our versatile platform enables us to work

with leading biopharma partners in any

given disease area and drug modality

to help them rapidly identify novel

therapeutics. Non-commercial collaborators

benefit from using the Benevolent

Platform™ to enhance research and impact

to patients in areas of urgent unmet need.

How we engaged

• We maintain strategic collaborations

with AstraZeneca and Merck KGaA and

a non-commercial collaboration with

the DNDi.

Outcomes of engagement

• Novel targets.

• Continuous enhancement

ofourplatform.

• Potential targets for DNDi.

• Differentiated positioning in AI-enabled

drug discovery industry.

• Broad innovation.

Communities

Our communities include those who live

and work in areas where we operate –

andsociety as a whole.

Why they are important totheCompany

We need to develop positive local

relationships and understand local

people’sneeds in order to attract talent

anddeliver our goals.

Why the Company is importanttothem

We want to help our communities thrive.

How we engaged

• The Company offers coaching

programmes and office space to

localcharities for training purposes.

Outcomes of engagement

• Two-way coaching with young adults

from under represented backgrounds

and supporting/developing coaching

andleadership skills.

• Fostering employee engagement with

local organisations and charities by

creating opportunities for employees

to learn about their work and

potentially engage with them through

paid volunteering days offered by

the Company.

Suppliers and

vendors

Our suppliers and vendors include those

who have a direct working or contractual

relationship or share a mutual interest

with us. This includes our service and data

providers, contract research organisations,

and general business providers.

Why they are important totheCompany

Their vital contributions to our business

range from providing products, raw

materials, services and advice.

Why the Company is importanttothem

Through effective collaboration, we aim

to build long-term relationships with our

suppliers so that both parties benefit – we

have relationships with contract research

organisations, regular supplier meetings

and business reviews.

How we engaged

• The Company has ongoing multi-year

relationships with several data providers.

• We choose the best CROs for our

programmes and build relationships

between parties.

Outcomes of engagement

• We have an efficient outsourcing model.

• We ensure data generated is of the

highest quality in a pre clinical and

clinical setting and with the CROs

provide input for us to make decisions.

We are committed to strong, regular, and transparent

engagement with the Company’s stakeholders. These

are the people, communities and organisations with an

interest in our mission, purpose and strategy or who may

otherwise be affected by decisions made by our Board.

This table outlines a list of the Company’s stakeholders,

why they are important to the Company, why we think

we are important to them and how we have engaged

with them over the year. Engagement with our key

stakeholders is regularly reviewed to ensure we learn

from these relationships for the benefit of all.

25BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Strategic report

Sustainability

ESG governance structure

This year, the Company’s main focus has been on enhancing our sustainability framework,

implementing the commitments we made in 2022 by creating practical plans, and placing

a greater emphasis on environmental aspects such as climate change, metrics, and

reporting. The governance structure we utilise to achieve this is as follows:

ESG Board Representative:

Non-Executive Director – Dr. Susan Liautaud

The role of the ESG Board Representative is to oversee ESG policies,

monitor the inclusion of sustainability-related matters in the strategy,

budget, operations and major capital expenditures, provide guidance and

define goals and metrics. The ESG Board Representative meets with the

ESG Team on a semi-annual basis.

ESG Team

The objectives of the ESG Team are to operationalise the goals set by the

Board and monitor progress and performance of the Company’s ESG

strategy. The team is led by the General Counsel with a cross-functional

team including representatives from Business Affairs, Finance, Investor

Relations, Communications and Facilities. TheESG Team meets monthly.

Strategic report

26 BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Our Sustainability Framework

At BenevolentAI we serve patients by leveraging our

proprietary and validated Benevolent Platform™ that

integrates AI and science to uncover new biology, predict

novel targets and develop first-in-class or best-in-class

drugs for complex diseases. By applying proprietary

advanced AI tools, in combination with in-house

scientific expertise and wet-lab facilities, BenevolentAI

is well positioned to identify and accelerate novel

drugdiscovery.

We are committed to weaving ESG stewardship into the

fabric of our mission. We concentrate our sustainability

efforts around five core levers:

• Enhance our platform

• Advance our pipeline

• Support our partners

• Invest in our people

• Reduce our impact on the planet

Each of these levers are covered by our governance

policies and aligned with applicable United Nations

(UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We have

identified the following sustainability issues as being the

most material for our business and our stakeholders:

diversity and inclusion, attraction and development of

talent, safety and wellbeing, innovation, product quality,

cybersecurity, ethical conduct, reducing waste and

climate change.

In September 2023 we were pleased to receive a

rating of 74/100 from EthiFinance ESG Ratings based

on data for the year ending on 31/12/2022, which

translated to a Gold medal.

In 2024 we will continue to further develop our ESG

strategy, with the objective of maintaining and, where

possible, increasing our ESG score. We will also complete

a “materiality assessment” – a formal exercise aimed at

engaging external and internal stakeholders to find out

how important ESG issues are to them – which will in

turn further our own understanding of these issues as

they relate to our business.

Platform

Pipeline

Partners

People

Planet

27BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Strategic report

Sustainability continued

Our goal is to contribute positively to society by

pushing the boundaries of technology and science

to address significant unmet medical needs by

developing new medicines for a broad range of

undertreated diseases.

Commitments

Progress clinical and preclinical assets to meet

development plan timelines.

Progress early pipeline assets to internally

agreedtimelines.

Maintain a steady-state Target ID discovery pipeline.

Deliver the project plans of our collaborations with

AstraZeneca and Merck.

2023 performance

Our internal pipeline assets are highly differentiated and

in therapeutic areas of high unmet need in complex

diseases affecting millions of patients worldwide where

there is the need for new, safe, and effective treatments.

In June 2023, we entered investigational new drug (IND)-

enabling studies for BEN-34712 (ALS), and in August 2023,

we initiated a Phase Ia study for BEN-8744 (UC), with

topline data expected by the end of Q1 2024. Additionally,

all Regulatory Toxicology safety studies for BEN-28010

(GBM) were successfully completed, reaching IND

readiness by Q4 2023.

Pipeline

In April 2023, we announced our topline Phase 2a results

for our topical pan-Trk inhibitor BEN-2293 in mild-to-

moderate atopic dermatitis (AD), which successfully met

its primary endpoint, with BEN-2293 found to be safe

and well tolerated. However, it did not achieve secondary

efficacy endpoints to reduce itch and inflammation.

Based on these results, the Company decided to stop any

further investment in this asset.

2024 targets

We expect topline data for the BEN-8744 Phase Ia study

by the end of Q1 2024 and the IND-enabling package for

BEN-34712 to be completed by Q2 2024. We also remain

committed to progressing earlier pipeline assets to our

development plan timelines and maintaining a steady-

state Target ID discovery pipeline. We will also look to

outlicense at least one of our proprietary pipeline assets.

Our Benevolent Platform™ integrates AI and science

to uncover new biology, predict novel targets and

develop first-in-class or best-in-class drugs for

complex diseases, with the goal of increasing the

probability of clinical success.

Commitments

Continue to enhance our Platform, ensuring we

maintain our position as a leader in applying

advanced AI to accelerate biopharma drug discovery

and, in doing so, positively impact society and serve

patients by improving R&D productivity.

2023 performance

In 2023 we made a number of improvements to the

Benevolent Platform™ (see Operational Review on

pages 12 and 13) and leveraged it to drive and support

our three revenue pillars. It has enabled the Company to

continue to deliver on our successful multi-year Target

Identification collaboration with AstraZeneca, support

our end-to-end discovery offerings enabling a new

strategic collaboration with Merck, progress our in-house

pipeline as well as work to develop and establish our new

Knowledge Exploration Tools.

2024 targets

During 2024, the Company will continue to invest in

the Benevolent Platform™ to maintain our leadership

position and support the progression of our preclinical

and clinical pipeline as well as delivering on the project

plans for our strategic collaborations with Merck and

AstraZeneca. In addition, a current market assessment is

underway for our suite of Knowledge Exploration Tools

and the results will be completed in early Q2 that will

determine if or how this opportunity fits into the wider

commercial strategy for the Company. The Platform will

also continue to support our non-profit collaborations.

Platform

Our Sustainability Framework continued

28 BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Strategic report

Our goal is to maintain existing and establish new

commercial and not-for-profit partnerships to put our

Benevolent Platform™ to good use for wider societal

benefit, and to deliver maximum impact to patients.

Commitments

Increase our societal impact through long-term,

mutually beneficial relationships.

Deliver on the project plans with our current partners

AstraZeneca and Merck.

Uphold our ethical standards across our value chain.

2023 performance

Our multi-year collaboration with AstraZeneca continued

successfully. Progress is being made toward further

target selections in heart failure and systemic lupus

erythematosus (SLE) disease areas.

In May 2023, we partnered with 9xchange, a biopharma

marketplace created for innovators to match, buy

and sell drug assets. The partnership aims to leverage

BenevolentAI’s AI-enabled technology to support

decision making related to indication expansion and

drug repurposing for assets on the 9xchange platform.

In September 2023, we signed a new collaboration with

Merck to deliver novel drug candidates, initially for three

targets in oncology, neurology and immunology. This

collaboration will enable Merck to leverage our end-to-

end drug discovery offerings to identify and develop

innovative compounds through Hit Identification to

the preclinical stage, to deliver small molecule drug

development candidates into the Merck pipeline.

BenevolentAI is a purposeful company, and we believe it

is important to amplify the impact of our platform and

put it to good use for wider societal benefit. Our not-for-

profit partnership with the Drugs for Neglected Diseases

initiative (DNDi) (signed in 2022) continues to make

progress, aiming to identify targets and approved drugs

that could be used to treat dengue fever, a climate-

sensitive neglected disease. In 2023, we reached in-vitro

validation in dengue-infected human endothelial cells

with existing drugs that show the ability to restore and

rescue the endothelial barrier. We are now awaiting in-

vivo results from DNDi.

Finally, as part of our commitment to responsible

sourcing, it is important for us to ensure that we embed

social and environmental considerations into our

procurement processes. In 2023, we developed and

published our Supply Chain policy, which outlines the

Company-level minimum standards that the Company

expects its suppliers to meet and the principles

BenevolentAI employees should abide by when

managing supplier relationships.

2024 targets

We plan to sign at least one new collaboration in 2024 as

well as continue with our not-for-profit partnerships.

Wealso plan to extend our Human Rights Policy to our

key suppliers.

Partners

Strategic report

29BenevolentAI Annual Report 2023

Sustainability continued

Our goal is to build an inclusive, supportive and

engaging workplace that enables employees to

collaborate, innovate and thrive. In doing so, we

aim to attract, retain and develop exceptional and

diverse talent to support our mission and drive

future growth.

Commitments

Attract, retain and develop our talent.

Maintain our focus on culture and values.

Promote diversity and inclusion.

Inspire the next generation of future leaders

from within.

2023 performance

2023 saw a significant change for the business and its

employees, and ensuring retention of key personnel

and employee engagement has been, and continues to

be, a key focus. At the end of 2023, our headcount was

248 FTEs, following a strategic review in May 2023 and

subsequent reduction in the size of the business.

As expected in a period of change, this resulted in an

overall increase in our voluntary turnover rate for 2023 to

18.2% (compared to 15.7% in 2022).

Despite headcount reductions in 2023, we are proud that

62% of current or former employees who left feedback

through Glassdoor would recommend BenevolentAI

as a Company to work at. We have also consistently

maintained a strong Glassdoor rating of above 4, with a

current score of 4.1.

In 2023, we continued to increase our efforts to nurture

a diverse team and an inclusive culture, where everyone

is and feels welcomed, respected, supported and

valued. We are committed to maintaining equal gender

balance in our global workforce, and improving gender

representation by recruiting, retaining and developing

women leaders at all levels. We look at gender diversity

holistically and ensure fairness across all our people

processes such as hiring, promotions and development

opportunities.

People

Recent examples include:

• Maintenance of gender balance. As we decreased

the organisation’s size, we have maintained our 50:50

gender balance, with 51% female representation,

49% male and <1% non-binary. In addition, 54% of our

leaders (Director and VP level) are female. In senior

roles, we welcomed two new female hires at the

Executive Leadership Team (ELT) level in 2023: our Chief

Financial Officer and our Chief Revenue Officer, and we

now have a 50/50% gender split at the ELT as well.

• Recruitment practices that mitigate hiring biases to

ensure the right people are hired into the right roles. In

2023, recruitment team members continued to work

towards diversity and inclusion targets linked to our

Product & Technology team (where we have a larger

percentage of men than women), where we target

50:50 gender balance for all roles at the interviewing

stage to promote equal opportunities, have mixed

interview panels to ensure a diverse group of

interviewers, and use proactive sourcing to ensure we

reach a diverse group of candidates. Recruitment team

members completed inclusive recruitment training to

increase awareness of unconscious bias.

• Annual salary benchmarking is in place for all roles to

ensure our salary bands remain competitive and fair, in

line with local pay markets and the relevant industry.

In addition to our focus on gender diversity, we believe

it is important that we provide an inclusive, supportive