Chai Discovery is a biotech startup focused on drug discovery, which recently announced a $130 million Series B funding round, valuing the company at $1.3 billion. This round was led by General Catalyst and Oak HC/FT, with participation from Menlo Ventures, OpenAI, Dimension, Thrive Capital, Neo, Yosemite Venture Fund, Lachy Groom, SV Angel, as well as new investors Glade Brook and Emerson Collective. The company's total funding now exceeds $225 million.
The industry where Chai Discovery operates is gradually recognizing the potential of artificial intelligence in drug development. In August last year, Menlo Ventures led Chai's $70 million Series A funding round, stating that Chai was building a foundational model for drug discovery, particularly to predict interactions between biochemical molecules, thereby offering new possibilities for treatment.
Chai Discovery aims to create a "molecular computer-aided design suite." Building on last year's progress, the company launched the Chai1AI model and recently introduced the latest Chai2 model. Chai stated that Chai2 has made significant improvements in the success rate of new antibody design, meaning it can design molecules that meet actual drug requirements from scratch and can target previously difficult-to-address targets.
Josh Meier, co-founder and CEO of Chai, said in a statement: "Our latest model can design molecules with the properties we hope to obtain from real drugs, solving challenges that were previously difficult to achieve." Before joining Chai, Meier worked in research and engineering at Facebook and previously at OpenAI.
Key points:
🌟 Chai Discovery completed a $130 million Series B funding round, with a valuation of $1.3 billion.
💡 The company focuses on drug discovery, using AI to predict interactions between biochemical molecules.
🔬 The newly released Chai2 model has made significant progress in new antibody design.
