BigHat Biosciences, a clinical-stage AI-driven protein therapeutics company based in San Mateo, California, has completed a $75 million Series C financing round. The investment brings the company's total funding raised to date to $223 million. Proceeds will support the advancement of BigHat's clinical-stage pipeline and the continued growth of its autonomous platform for rapid, AI-powered protein design.
Financing Details and Investor Support
The Series C round was co-led by DFJ Growth and Premji Invest, with participation from Catalio Capital Management, LG Technology Ventures, Sigmas Group, and multiple existing investors. Returning backers include 8VC, Alexandria Venture Investments, Amgen Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Eli Lilly and Company, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, and Section 32. The financing follows a $44 million Series B extension completed in 2025 and an $80 million Series B raised in 2022.
Platform Designed for Rapid Protein Engineering
BigHat has built an autonomous AI and experimental platform that generates proprietary, fit-for-purpose biological data at scale to drive leading frontier models for therapeutic design. This integrated learning loop supports molecular design across diverse modalities, therapeutic areas and molecular design objectives. The company uses gold-standard datasets to train and improve AI models, enabling rapid design and optimization of therapeutics with clinical-stage properties.
Executive Vision for AI-Driven Drug Development
BigHat co-founder and CEO Peyton Greenside said the company's mission is to design transformative therapeutics by combining frontier AI with the autonomous generation of gold-standard biological data. He added that the financing will help advance both the internal pipeline and the platform while forming new partnerships with major technology and life sciences companies. Greenside described BHB810 as one of the first AI-designed biologics to reach the clinic.
Clinical Programs Advancing Toward Readouts
The new capital will help advance BHB810 and BHB299 to key clinical readouts. BHB810 is a novel CDH17-directed antibody-drug conjugate for gastric cancer and other advanced gastrointestinal tumors, and it has already dosed its first patient in a Phase 1 trial. BHB299 is an avidity-driven T-cell engager designed to selectively target CEACAM6-expressing solid tumors, with human trials planned for 2027.
Expanding Pharma and AI Partnerships
Since its Series B financing, BigHat has demonstrated the versatility of its platform through both internal pipeline programs and external partnerships. The company has forged collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies including Amgen, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie and Lilly. BigHat has also established innovative partnerships with frontier AI companies to deploy state-of-the-art models for agentic therapeutic design.
Leadership and Strategic Growth
BigHat has strengthened its leadership team with appointments that bring deep expertise across machine learning, protein engineering, automation and therapeutic development. In June 2026, Stefan Weigand, former Head of Large Molecule Research at Roche, joined as Chief Scientific Officer. John Corbin, former Chief Technology Officer at Tizona Therapeutics, became Chief Development Officer in June 2023.
Investor Perspectives on BigHat's Data Advantage
DFJ Growth Partner Justin Kao said BigHat has uniquely enabled reinforcement learning for molecular design with a platform optimized for industry-leading speed and scale. Premji Invest Vice President Marc Martin Casas noted that biologics rarely fail in the clinic because they cannot bind a target, but because they lack drug-like properties that turn promising binders into medicines. Both investors emphasized BigHat's integrated learning loop and compounding data advantage as central to its clinical-stage pipeline.
The $75 million Series C positions BigHat to advance one of the first AI-designed biologics in clinical development while scaling a data platform that strengthens with every program. The investment reflects growing confidence in the convergence of frontier AI and autonomous experimentation for protein therapeutics. BigHat aims to translate these advances into transformative medicines and faster development timelines for patients.