OpenAI-backed biotech agency Chai Discovery raises $130M Collection B at $1.3B valuation

Chai Discovery, a biotech startup with backing from OpenAI, announced a $130 million Collection B spherical at a $1.3 billion valuation on Monday.

The spherical was led by Basic Catalyst and Oak HC/FT, the firm stated. Different members embody Menlo Ventures, OpenAI, Dimension, Thrive Capital, Neo, Yosemite enterprise fund, Lachy Groom, SV Angel, and new traders Glade Brook and Emerson Collective. The agency’s whole funding now stands at over $225 million.

The corporate is one in a growing industry that sees AI as a quicker route towards drug improvement. In August, Menlo Ventures announced it was main Chai’s $70 million Collection A spherical. The investor described Chai as a startup that was constructing basis fashions tuned for drug discovery, particularly to predict interactions between biochemical molecules so that they may very well be reprogramed for cures.

Chai says that its ambition is to “construct the ‘computer-aided design suite’ for molecules.” Final yr, the startup announced the Chai 1 AI mannequin and is now providing Chai 2, it’s newest mannequin. The corporate says Chai 2 is attaining vital enhancements in success charges over different strategies for de novo antibody design, which means constructing customized antibodies from scratch, not modifying present ones.

“Our newest fashions can design molecules which have properties we’d need from precise medication, and sort out difficult targets which were out of attain,” Josh Meier, Chai’s co-founder and CEO stated in a ready assertion.

Beforehand, Meier, whose background is in machine studying, labored in analysis and engineering at Fb and, prior to that, labored for OpenAI, according to his LinkedIn. Chai Discovery was based in 2024, the profile notes.