London-based Potential Sciences raised an eight-figure Seed round backed by the UK government's Sovereign AI fund and Stripe CEO Patrick Collison. The startup builds AI infrastructure for scientific drug discovery. The round was announced on Thursday, November 5, 2026.
Investors and compute
The government's Sovereign AI fund joined the round as an investor and also committed compute capacity. Other backers included Twin Path Ventures, Odyssey, Portfolio Ventures, Blue Wire Capital, rule30, Nauta Capital, and Lightfield Equity. Angel investment also came from Chris Gibson, co-founder and former CEO of Recursion.
Company origins
Potential Sciences was founded in 2025 by doctor Hatem Helal. He previously worked at Graphcore, the chip designer acquired by SoftBank. The company declined to disclose its exact valuation.
How the technology works
The startup uses AI, machine learning, and quantum chemistry simulations to help researchers understand how molecules behave and interact. Its model focuses on the fundamental laws of physics rather than previous experimental data. Potential Sciences says this approach could make the AI calculations needed to design chemicals 100 times cheaper than at present.
Sovereign AI is providing compute through the AI Research Resource, including the Isambard-AI supercomputer in Bristol. Advisors Andrew Fitzgibbon and James Hawkins will support the company. Potential Sciences says its seed round now buys what used to require a dedicated datacenter.