Chai Discovery, a research lab transforming biology into an engineering discipline, has secured a $130 million Series B funding round. Co-led by General Catalyst and Oak HC/FT, the investment brings the company's total capital raised to over $225 million. This funding will fuel Chai's mission to build a "computer-aided design suite" for molecules and accelerate the creation of next-generation medicines.
Accelerating Innovation in Drug Design
This latest funding follows a $70 million Series A just months prior, highlighting rapid investor confidence and technological progress. That round coincided with the launch of Chai 2, a generative platform for antibody design. The platform demonstrated a 100-fold improvement over previous computational methods, solving complex biological challenges at unprecedented speed.
CEO Josh Meier emphasized the transformative pace of development, noting that problems once thought years away are now being solved in weeks. He stated that the company's advanced models can design molecules with desirable drug-like properties to pursue difficult targets. This capability positions Chai to unlock a new wave of first-in-class and best-in-class therapeutics for patients.
The Vision for Programmable Biology
At its core, Chai Discovery aims to make biology a programmable and engineered discipline, moving beyond traditional empirical methods. The company builds sophisticated models that predict and reprogram molecular interactions with high accuracy. This approach converts the lengthy, iterative cycle of drug discovery into a streamlined computational process, changing how medicines are developed.
Elena Viboch, Managing Director at General Catalyst, echoed this vision, stating that Chai's team is leading the transformation of biology into a programmable field. This paradigm shift is expected to expand what is possible in therapeutics by applying engineering principles to biological systems. The goal is a design suite that empowers scientists to build novel medicines with greater precision and efficiency.
Addressing Industry Challenges with AI
The biopharmaceutical industry has long been hampered by slow, expensive, and imprecise drug development. Annie Lamont, Co-Founder of Oak HC/FT, noted that bringing a medicine from lab to patient can take over a decade and cost more than a billion dollars. Chai Discovery's AI-driven platform directly confronts these inefficiencies by rewriting the conventional drug discovery narrative.
By leveraging its advanced computational platform, the company can materially compress the timeline for preclinical development and first-in-human studies. This acceleration allows researchers to tackle hard-to-drug and previously "undruggable" targets that have eluded traditional methods. Ultimately, this approach promises to shorten the overall time to commercialization, bringing vital new treatments to patients much faster.
Strategic Investment and Leadership
The Series B round saw participation from a formidable syndicate of investors, including Thrive Capital, OpenAI, and Menlo Ventures. The company also welcomed new investors Emerson Collective and Glade Brook, signaling broad support for its pioneering work. This capital will be deployed to accelerate frontier research, expand the team, and advance commercialization efforts.
As part of the investment, the company is strengthening its governance with two prominent industry leaders joining its board of directors. Annie Lamont from Oak HC/FT and Hemant Taneja from General Catalyst will bring extensive expertise to guide Chai's strategic growth. Their involvement underscores the high level of confidence that leading investors have in the company's technology and vision.
This $130 million funding round marks a pivotal moment for Chai Discovery, solidifying its position as a leader at the intersection of AI and biotechnology. With substantial new capital and strengthened leadership, the company is poised to accelerate its mission of engineering novel therapeutics. The advancements pioneered by Chai Discovery hold the potential to create a new generation of medicines and reshape the biopharmaceutical industry.