Chai Discovery, a biotech startup focused on revolutionizing drug discovery, has successfully raised $130 million in a Series B funding round, bringing its valuation to $1.3 billion. By 2024, they had launched Chai Discovery. The company applies AI breakthroughs to model interactions between biochemical molecules and uses AI to re-engineer these molecules, potentially curing diseases.
Co-founded by Josh Meier, who possesses a strong background in machine learning, Chai Discovery is carving out a niche within the biotech industry. Prior to founding Chai Discovery, Meier made impactful contributions as a researcher and engineer at Facebook, making important advances during his time at OpenAI. His deep expertise in AI and machine learning philosophies is the foundation for the cutting-edge models under development at Chai Discovery.
According to Chai Discovery’s co-founders, their core mission is to “create the computer-aided design suite” for molecules. That’s a remarkable achievement for the San Francisco-based startup since first introducing its flagship AI model, Chai 1, last year. Chai 2 is out, and the company can finally talk about the major strides they’ve made. Boasting better than 90% success rates in de novo antibody design, they’re now designing bespoke antibodies from the ground up rather than tweaking existing ones.
“With our newest models, we’re able to design molecules that have the properties that we’d want them to have as real drugs,” Josh Meier explained. Most importantly, they focus on the ambitious targets that have long been considered unattainable.
This latest round of funding follows a very successful $70 million Series A round led by Menlo Ventures in August. Now, the funding has exceeded $225 million! The support from E12 accelerates Chai Discovery’s ability to advance its R&D work. This advancement will continue to build its industry-leading, AI-first portfolio of drug discovery solutions powered by generative AI.
Amid all the changes taking place in healthcare today, the use of AI in drug development opens up new possibilities. Chai Discovery is at the forefront of this movement. They are deeply committed to reshaping the way therapeutic molecules are designed and optimized.