What are the fundraising trends in the AI in drug discovery market?
In our AI in drug discovery market deck, you will find everything you need to understand the market
SUMMARY
We analyzed every publicly disclosed equity round raised by pure-play AI in drug discovery companies between January 2024 and May 2026, using a $300K minimum disclosed deal-size threshold and keeping only companies focused on therapeutic candidate identification or design before human trials. The resulting dataset covers full-year 2024, full-year 2025, and year-to-date 2026 through May 2026.
The AI in drug discovery market expanded sharply from 2024 to 2025, rising from about $1.53B across 15 deals to about $2.69B across 31 deals. That means the market more than doubled by deal count and grew by roughly three-quarters in disclosed capital.
So far in 2026, the market has cooled by capital but broadened by activity. Year-to-date 2026 produced about $308M across 17 deals, compared with about $1.04B across 8 deals over the same period in 2025.
The main 2026 signal is not investor abandonment. It is a shift from fewer giant platform financings toward more smaller rounds, with median round size falling to $10M while deal count more than doubled versus the comparable 2025 period.
Capital remains concentrated, but less dramatically than in the most distorted periods. In 2024, Xaira alone represented 65.5% of all capital. In full-year 2025, the largest round represented 22.3%. In year-to-date 2026, Proxima's $80M seed is the largest round and represents 26.0% of capital.
AI Lead Generation remains the capital anchor of the AI in drug discovery market. It captured 78.9% of 2024 capital, 48.5% of 2025 capital, and 57.0% of year-to-date 2026 capital, which confirms that investors still pay most for platforms closest to therapeutic candidate creation.
De Novo Design has become the clearest momentum category. It moved from only 3.6% of 2024 capital to 37.5% of 2025 capital, then remained meaningful in 2026 with 23.0% of year-to-date capital and 23.5% of deals.
Preclinical Prediction AI is emerging as a formation category rather than a large-check category. It has already produced 4 deals in year-to-date 2026, equal to 23.5% of deal activity, but only 6.4% of capital.
Geographically, the AI in drug discovery market is becoming more global by participation but remains North American by capital intensity. Europe leads year-to-date 2026 deal count with 47.1% of deals, while North America still captures 67.9% of capital.
The market is maturing structurally but remains experimental at the company level. Full-year 2025 showed scaled institutional financing, with 13 rounds above $50M and 9 rounds above $100M, while year-to-date 2026 has mostly seed and Series A activity and only one round above $50M.
This chart, featured in our AI in drug discovery market deck, shows revenue breakdown by customer segment in the AI in drug discovery market
Is more or less capital going into the AI in drug discovery market?
Less capital is going into the AI in drug discovery market so far in 2026 than over the comparable period in 2025, but the more useful interpretation is that the market is cooling from an unusually capital-heavy 2025 rather than collapsing. From January through May 2026, the AI in drug discovery market raised about $308M across 17 deals, versus about $1.04B across 8 deals over the same period in 2025.
That means deal count more than doubled while capital fell by roughly 70%. The practical takeaway is that more companies are getting financed, but the market is no longer producing the same giant early-year platform rounds.
The 2025 comparison is demanding because it included several exceptional financings. Isomorphic Labs raised $600M, Lila Sciences raised $200M, and Insilico Medicine raised $110M in the early-2025 comparison window. Those three rounds alone explain most of the difference.
The fuller-year comparison gives a more balanced view. Full-year 2025 was meaningfully larger than full-year 2024, with $2.69B across 31 deals versus about $1.53B across 15 deals. So the AI in drug discovery market grew materially from 2024 to 2025 before resetting to smaller check sizes in early 2026.
The honest conclusion is that capital is becoming more selective. Investor interest remains active, but the market has moved away from the 2025 pattern of very large, platform-defining rounds.
Is AI in drug discovery funding driven by more deals or larger rounds?
AI in drug discovery funding is currently being driven by more deals, not larger rounds. The clearest evidence is year-to-date 2026 versus the same period in 2025: deal count rose from 8 to 17, while total capital fell from about $1.04B to about $308M.
The round-size compression is even clearer in the averages and medians. Average round size fell from about $130M to about $18M, and median round size fell from about $45.5M to $10M. That is not a bigger-round story. It is a broader-but-smaller financing story.
The 2026 market has a much wider base of smaller financings. Five rounds were under $5M, six were between $5M and $20M, five were between $20M and $50M, and only one round was above $50M.
Full-year 2025 looked very different. It combined more deals with more large rounds, including 13 rounds above $50M and 9 rounds above $100M. The median round rose to $50M in 2025, which means the middle of the market was better capitalized than in 2024.
For a deeper analysis of deal-size compression, round medians, and category-level funding shifts, see the AI in drug discovery market deck.
Is AI in drug discovery capital moving toward later-stage or earlier-stage companies?
AI in drug discovery capital has moved back toward earlier-stage companies so far in 2026, even though full-year 2025 showed a clear move toward later-stage and growth-stage companies. In year-to-date 2026, seed, Series A, and unknown-stage financings captured 90.6% of capital, while Series B+ captured only 9.4%.
That is a major reversal from early 2025. From January through May 2025, late-stage and growth-equity capital captured about 68.4% of dollars, largely because of Isomorphic Labs and Insilico Medicine.
The full-year comparison points in the opposite direction because 2025 matured significantly over the year. In full-year 2025, Series B+ and growth equity captured about 54% of capital, compared with 20.3% in full-year 2024.
The real signal is that the market matured in 2025, then rotated back toward formation in early 2026. That does not mean the category became immature again. It means the current funding tape is dominated by seed and Series A companies rather than by scaled platforms raising later-stage capital.
This chart, featured in our AI in drug discovery market deck, compares the main business model options for AI drug discovery biotech companies
Is the AI in drug discovery market maturing or still experimental?
The AI in drug discovery market is maturing structurally, but the 2026 financing pattern still contains a large experimental layer. The strongest evidence of maturation is full-year 2025: 31 deals, $2.69B of disclosed capital, 13 rounds above $50M, 9 rounds above $100M, and a majority of capital going to Series B+ and growth-equity rounds.
Those are not signs of a purely experimental market. They show that investors are willing to finance scaled platforms, repeat winners, and companies with stronger validation.
But 2026 looks more exploratory. So far, 9 of 17 deals are seed rounds, 6 are Series A rounds, and only 1 is Series B. There are no Series C, Series D+, or growth-equity rounds in the covered 2026 period.
The right answer is therefore not simply mature or experimental. The AI in drug discovery market has matured as a category, but many companies inside the current financing wave are still proving that their models, data loops, wet-lab systems, or pharma deployments can produce candidate-quality outputs.
Are new startups still entering the AI in drug discovery market?
Yes, new startups are still entering the AI in drug discovery market, but new entrants are receiving a smaller share of capital than they did during the comparable early-2025 period. So far in 2026, first financings represent 35.3% of deals but only 19.3% of capital.
That means new company formation remains active, while larger checks are more often going to companies with prior validation. The market is open to new entrants, but it is more demanding about what earns a large round.
Early 2025 looked different because first financings represented 50.0% of deals and 84.3% of capital. But that was not normal seed formation. It was shaped by very large first external financings of institutionally credible platforms such as Isomorphic Labs and Lila Sciences.
The 2026 new entrants are more specialized. Topos Bio, Boltz, Ternary Therapeutics, DeepCyte, Helical, 10x Science, and others are attacking specific bottlenecks such as intrinsically disordered proteins, molecular glues, toxicology, virtual AI labs, and protein characterization.
For a broader view of new-company formation and which technical wedges are attracting early capital, see the full AI in drug discovery market report.
Are more investors entering the AI in drug discovery market?
More investors appear to be participating in the AI in drug discovery market over the full-year trend, but the current-year signal is fragmented rather than clearly deeper. Full-year 2024 had about 75 unique disclosed investors, while full-year 2025 had about 95.
That means the investor base broadened by total count. But the number of tier-1 investors did not expand in the same way, moving from 41 in 2024 to roughly 38 in 2025.
The 2026 year-to-date evidence is impressive on breadth because about 76 disclosed investors have already participated in only four months of activity. However, the number of tier-1 or high-signal investors is only 11 so far in 2026.
The quality of investor participation matters more than the raw count. A long list of one-off investors is not the same as a deep specialist syndicate ecosystem that can repeatedly support companies through expensive biological validation.
This chart, featured in our AI in drug discovery market deck, shows annual funding in AI drug discovery startups
Are top investors getting more or less active in AI in drug discovery?
Top investors are less visibly active so far in 2026 than they were across full-year 2025, even though several high-quality investors remain present in the AI in drug discovery market. In 2026, high-signal investors include a16z, DCVC, NVentures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Threshold, Sutter Hill Ventures, Initialized Capital, Y Combinator, Gradient, BoxGroup, and Dimension Capital.
That is a credible group, but repeat activity among those investors is limited. The market has not yet produced the same density of repeat large-round participation that made 2025 look like a major institutional scaling year.
The 2025 comparison was stronger. Repeat top investors included Flagship Pioneering, General Catalyst, Lux Capital, Sofinnova Partners, Menlo Ventures, OpenAI, Thrive Capital, Insight Partners, Catalio, and Value Partners.
So far in 2026, top investors are not absent. DCVC and NVentures backed Proxima, Bessemer backed Converge Bio, Sutter Hill backed Fathom, a16z backed Boltz, and Initialized plus Y Combinator backed 10x Science. The signal is selective rather than broadly aggressive.
Which AI in drug discovery subcategories are gaining momentum?
De Novo Design and Preclinical Prediction AI are gaining the most visible momentum in the AI in drug discovery market, while AI Lead Generation remains the largest capital category. The freshest signal comes from year-to-date 2026, where De Novo Design captured 23.5% of deals and 23.0% of capital.
That balance matters because it means De Novo Design is producing both company formation and market-average check sizes. The category is not just creating many small companies; it is attracting meaningful capital relative to its deal share.
De Novo Design has the stronger full-year capital-quality signal. It rose from only $55M in 2024 to about $1.01B in 2025, moving from 3.6% of capital to 37.5%. That is the clearest subcategory acceleration in the dataset.
Preclinical Prediction AI is gaining deal momentum, not capital momentum. It already has 4 deals in year-to-date 2026, equal to 23.5% of activity, but those rounds are small, with an average of about $4.9M and a median of about $4.1M.
We cover this subcategory shift in more detail in the market report covering AI drug discovery categories.
Which AI in drug discovery subcategories are losing momentum?
AI Target Discovery and AI Drug Repurposing are losing momentum in the AI in drug discovery market, especially as standalone financing narratives. AI Drug Repurposing is the clearest weak category because it had one deal in 2024, no retained deals in 2025, and no retained deals so far in 2026.
That does not mean repurposing no longer exists inside broader platforms. It means pure-play repurposing is not attracting visible venture financing at meaningful scale.
AI Target Discovery has also weakened sharply. It had 3 deals and $86.2M in 2024, then fell to 1 deal and $2.3M in 2025. So far in 2026, it has recovered somewhat to 2 deals and $28.2M, but only 9.2% of capital.
The better interpretation is that target discovery alone is no longer enough. Investors appear to prefer platforms that connect target hypotheses to candidate generation, molecular design, wet-lab validation, proprietary data, or internal therapeutic programs.
This chart, featured in our AI in drug discovery market deck, shows how Shrödinger is positioned in AI drug discovery
Which regions are gaining momentum in AI in drug discovery funding?
Europe is gaining momentum by deal count in AI in drug discovery funding so far in 2026, while Asia-Pacific gained structural importance in 2025 and North America remains the capital leader. Europe produced 8 of 17 year-to-date 2026 deals, equal to 47.1% of activity.
However, Europe's capital share is much weaker than its deal share. So far in 2026, Europe captured 20.0% of capital, while North America captured 67.9%.
That means Europe is currently gaining startup-formation momentum, not large-check momentum. Europe's average round size was about $7.7M, compared with about $29.8M in North America.
Asia-Pacific is gaining importance over the fuller period. It had no qualifying funding in 2024, then captured $461M across 4 deals in 2025, equal to 17.1% of capital. In 2026, Asia-Pacific remains present with 2 deals and $37.4M.
For ongoing regional tracking across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and other regions, see the full market view on AI drug discovery regions.
Which regions are losing momentum in AI in drug discovery funding?
The Middle East is losing visible momentum in the AI in drug discovery market, while Europe is losing relative capital intensity despite gaining deal count. The Middle East had one qualifying deal in 2024 and one in 2025, but none in the year-to-date 2026 period.
That is a weak signal because the absolute deal count was always small. Still, it shows that the region has not developed into a visible recurring financing hub for this market.
Europe's situation is more nuanced. Europe is not losing momentum by deal count, but it is losing capital momentum relative to deal momentum. In early 2025, Europe captured 66.6% of capital, mostly because of Isomorphic Labs and Latent Labs. In early 2026, Europe has 47.1% of deals but only 20.0% of capital.
North America is not losing market power. Its 2026 deal share is lower than full-year 2025, but its capital share remains very high at 67.9%, which means North America has shifted from dominating deal count to dominating dollars.
Is AI in drug discovery becoming more global or regionally concentrated?
The AI in drug discovery market is becoming more global by participation, but capital remains regionally concentrated in North America. In 2024, North America captured 84.5% of capital, Europe captured 15.2%, and the Middle East captured 0.4%.
Full-year 2025 was materially more global. North America's capital share fell to 54.9%, Europe rose to 27.7%, Asia-Pacific rose to 17.1%, and the Middle East contributed 0.2%.
The 2026 picture confirms broader geographic participation but not balanced capital distribution. Europe leads deal count with 47.1% of deals, North America has 41.2%, and Asia-Pacific has 11.8%. But North America still captures 67.9% of capital.
The practical answer is that the AI in drug discovery market is globalizing at the formation layer while remaining concentrated at the capital layer. More regions can produce startups, but North America is still where the largest rounds are most likely to happen.
This chart, featured in our AI in drug discovery market deck, shows how pharma partnerships have driven growth in the AI drug discovery market over time
Is AI in drug discovery capital moving toward proven winners or new opportunities?
AI in drug discovery capital is moving more toward proven winners so far in 2026, even though new opportunities remain active. The clearest indicator is that first financings account for 35.3% of deals but only 19.3% of capital.
That means investors are still funding new startups, but larger checks are going to companies with prior financing, validation, partnerships, or platform progress.
The comparable early-2025 period looked like the opposite, with first financings representing 50.0% of deals and 84.3% of capital. But that was driven by first external financings of already institutionally credible platforms such as Isomorphic Labs and Lila Sciences.
The 2026 signal is more conservative. Proxima, Converge Bio, Galux, Tamarind, Antiverse, Generare, and Fathom are follow-on or previously established companies, and many smaller first financings do not dominate dollars.
Our deeper analysis of the AI in drug discovery market tracks how first financings and follow-on rounds are shifting over time.
Is the AI in drug discovery market becoming winner-takes-most?
The AI in drug discovery market is winner-takes-most in capital allocation, but less winner-takes-most in 2026 than it was in 2024 or early 2025. So far in 2026, the largest deal captured 26.0% of capital, the top three captured 50.7%, and the top five captured 67.9%.
That is concentrated, but not absurdly concentrated for a biotech-platform market. A market where the top three deals account for about half of capital is top-heavy, but it is not purely one-company-driven.
The 2024 market was much more extreme. Xaira alone captured 65.5% of full-year capital, while the top three deals captured 77.2% and the top five captured 83.2%.
The stronger full-year 2025 signal is that the winner set broadened. The largest deal represented 22.3% of capital, and the top three captured 41.9%, which means more companies entered the large-check tier over the year.
Is the next wave of AI in drug discovery winners becoming visible?
The next wave of AI in drug discovery winners is becoming visible, but the signal is stronger for categories and proof patterns than for definitive company outcomes. In 2026, the most visible emerging winners combine AI with a specific therapeutic or technical wedge.
Examples include Proxima in proximity-based medicines, Fathom in physics-and-AI small-molecule design, Boltz in biomolecular models and AI agents, Galux in protein therapeutics design, Converge Bio in generative AI workflows, Generare in microbial-genome molecular discovery, and Helical in virtual AI lab infrastructure.
The current-year evidence is preliminary because most 2026 rounds are seed or Series A. The median round is only $10M, and there has been only one $50M-plus round.
The practical filter is to ask whether a company can turn AI outputs into experimentally validated therapeutic candidates. The strongest proof points are proprietary data generation, wet-lab validation, pharma deployment, candidate ownership, and repeat financing from high-quality investors.
As this chart shows, and as featured in our AI in drug discovery market deck, search interest in AI drug discovery has grown rapidly
Is the AI in drug discovery funding landscape fragmenting or consolidating?
The AI in drug discovery funding landscape is fragmenting at the company and investor level while consolidating around a smaller number of high-conviction platform archetypes. So far in 2026, 17 deals involved about 76 disclosed unique investors, but only a handful of repeat investors.
The company landscape is also fragmented. The 2026 deals span intrinsically disordered proteins, open biomolecular models, predictive genomics, proximity medicines, generative AI target discovery, protein therapeutics, toxicology, quantum-mechanics-driven chemistry, molecular AI infrastructure, antibody design, molecular glues, microbial genome mining, virtual labs, protein characterization, and small-molecule design.
But capital is consolidating around clearer investable archetypes. The recurring themes are candidate generation, de novo design, closed-loop validation, safety and developability prediction, and AI plus wet-lab or physics-based execution.
The best interpretation is that the AI in drug discovery market is fragmenting in surface area but consolidating in funding logic. Many startups are attacking many bottlenecks, but capital is increasingly disciplined about which bottlenecks deserve large rounds.
Where is investor attention shifting in AI in drug discovery?
Investor attention in the AI in drug discovery market is shifting toward platforms that can create, optimize, or validate therapeutic candidates, especially where AI is paired with proprietary data, wet-lab feedback, physics, robotics, structural biology, or pharma-grade deployment.
The market is moving away from broad claims that AI accelerates drug discovery and toward narrower, testable systems that can show how model output becomes better molecular matter.
The category evidence is clear. AI Lead Generation remains the largest capital category, De Novo Design became a major capital category in 2025, and Preclinical Prediction AI is gaining deal momentum in 2026.
The most assertive read is that investor attention is shifting from generic AI discovery narratives to proof-rich technical wedges. The winners will be companies that can prove one of three things: the AI system produces better candidate matter, the AI system improves the experimental validation loop, or the AI system is already embedded in pharma-grade workflows.
For real-time tracking of these shifts across candidate generation, de novo design, safety prediction, wet-lab feedback loops, and regional capital pools, see the full AI in drug discovery market report.
All the funding deals in the AI drug discovery market from 2024 to Apr 2026
The table below lists every disclosed funding deal in the supplied AI drug discovery dataset from January 2024 through April 2026, covering companies using AI, machine learning, foundation models, computational biology, robotics, physics-based modelling, quantum chemistry, and related technologies for drug discovery and development.
Each row shows the company, the fundraising date, what the company does, its category, the funding stage, the round size, the region, whether it was a first financing or a follow-on, the tier-1 investor if any, and the announcement source. For the broader investability view, see our AI drug discovery market deck.
| Company | Date | What they do | Category | Stage | Deal size | Region | First/Follow-on | Tier 1 investor(s) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fathom Therapeutics | Apr 2026 | Quantum chemistry and AI-enabled small-molecule design, predicting molecular behavior inside living cells. | AI Lead Generation | Series A | $47M | North America | Follow-on | Sutter Hill Ventures | PR Newswire |
| 10x Science | Apr 2026 | AI for molecular-level protein characterization, helping evaluate biologic therapeutics and AI-generated candidate molecules. | Preclinical Prediction AI | Seed | $4.8M | North America | First financing | Initialized Capital; Y Combinator | PR Newswire |
| Helical | Apr 2026 | Virtual AI lab converting biological foundation models into reproducible in-silico discovery workflows for pharma R&D. | Preclinical Prediction AI | Seed | $10M | Europe | First financing | Gradient; BoxGroup | Tech.eu |
| DeepCyte | Apr 2026 | AI toxicology tools for drug development, using single-cell human-cell analysis to detect, predict and explain toxicity. | Preclinical Prediction AI | Seed | $1.5M | Europe | First financing | none disclosed | PR Newswire |
| Generare | Apr 2026 | AI-driven molecular discovery platform decoding microbial genomes to generate novel molecules and molecular data for drug development. | AI Lead Generation | Series A | $23M | Europe | Follow-on | none identified | EU-Startups |
| Ternary Therapeutics | Mar 2026 | AI, physics-based modelling and lab feedback platform for intentionally designing molecular glue drugs. | De Novo Design | Seed | $4.5M | Europe | First financing | none identified | EU-Startups |
| Antiverse | Mar 2026 | AI-driven, lab-in-the-loop de novo antibody design for difficult drug targets. | De Novo Design | Series A | $9.3M | Europe | Follow-on | none identified | Business Wire |
| Tamarind Bio | Feb 2026 | Infrastructure layer for molecular AI inference, enabling scientists to run AI and simulation models for drug discovery. | AI Lead Optimization | Series A | $13.6M | North America | Follow-on | Y Combinator; Dimension Capital | Tamarind Bio |
| Pharmacelera | Feb 2026 | Quantum-mechanics and AI platform for discovering novel molecules across large chemical spaces. | AI Lead Generation | Unknown | $6.5M | Europe | Follow-on | none identified | PR Newswire |
| Peptris | Feb 2026 | AI-powered drug-discovery company advancing internal programs toward clinical development. | AI Lead Generation | Series A | $8.4M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | none identified | IAN Group |
| Sable Bio | Feb 2026 | AI-powered target-safety and drug-safety platform for earlier toxicity and safety-risk assessment. | Preclinical Prediction AI | Seed | $3.4M | Europe | Follow-on | none identified | EU-Startups |
| Galux | Feb 2026 | AI-driven protein therapeutics design, with a focus on de novo protein design and developability. | De Novo Design | Series B | $29M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Korea Development Bank | Business Wire |
| Converge Bio | Jan 2026 | Generative AI platform for target discovery, antibody design, protein manufacturing optimization, and broader drug-discovery workflows. | AI Target Discovery | Series A | $25M | North America | Follow-on | Bessemer Venture Partners | PR Newswire |
| Proxima | Jan 2026 | AI-native biotech developing proximity-based medicines, including molecular glues and PROTAC-like approaches. | AI Lead Generation | Seed | $80M | North America | Follow-on | DCVC; NVentures | Business Wire |
| OutSee | Jan 2026 | AI-based predictive genomics platform for target discovery and therapeutic-candidate generation. | AI Target Discovery | Seed | $3.2M | Europe | Follow-on / seed completion | none identified | UKBN |
| Boltz | Jan 2026 | Open biomolecular AI models and productized AI agents for small-molecule and protein design workflows. | De Novo Design | Seed | $28M | North America | First financing | a16z | Boltz |
| Topos Bio | Jan 2026 | AI-driven drug discovery for intrinsically disordered proteins, using a foundation model approach to target historically undruggable proteins. | AI Lead Generation | Seed | $10.5M | North America | First financing | Threshold; Boldstart | Topos Bio |
| Insilico Medicine | Dec 2025 | HKEX public listing / growth equity capital for AI-driven drug discovery and development. | AI Lead Generation | Growth Equity | $293M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Qiming Venture Partners historically; public-market investors not individually disclosed | PR Newswire |
| Chai Discovery | Dec 2025 | AI molecular discovery suite for antibody and molecular design. | De Novo Design | Series B | $130M | North America | Follow-on | General Catalyst; Oak HC/FT | Business Wire |
| ChemLex | Dec 2025 | AI-for-science/self-driving lab platform for chemical discovery serving pharma. | AI Lead Generation | Unknown | $45M | Asia-Pacific | First financing | Granite Asia | PR Newswire |
| Medra | Dec 2025 | Physical AI Scientists platform combining AI algorithms and robotic execution for drug discovery. | AI Lead Generation | Series A | $52M | North America | First financing | Lux Capital; Menlo Ventures; Catalio Capital Management; 776 | Medra |
| PsiThera | Dec 2025 | Molecular dynamics, quantum chemistry, and AI platform for oral drugs against validated immune/inflammatory targets. | AI Lead Optimization | Series A | $47.5M | North America | First financing | Samsara BioCapital; Lightstone Ventures; Roivant | PsiThera |
| Excelsior Sciences | Dec 2025 | AI and robotics platform for small-molecule discovery using machine-suitable chemistry. | AI Lead Optimization | Series A | $70M | North America | First financing | Khosla Ventures; Deerfield Management; Eli Lilly; Sofinnova Ventures | Axios |
| AI Proteins | Nov 2025 | AI-designed de novo miniprotein therapeutics platform. | De Novo Design | Series A | $41.5M | North America | Follow-on | Mission BioCapital; Santé Ventures | AI Proteins |
| Profluent | Nov 2025 | Frontier AI models for de novo protein design, genome editors, antibodies, enzymes, and therapeutics. | De Novo Design | Series B | $106M | North America | Follow-on | Altimeter Capital; Bezos Expeditions; Spark Capital; Insight Partners | Business Wire |
| TandemAI | Nov 2025 | Integrated AI, physics-based computation, and wet-lab drug discovery platform. | AI Lead Optimization | Series A | $22M | North America | Follow-on | OrbiMed; Qiming Venture Partners; Sequoia Capital | TandemAI |
| Iambic Therapeutics | Nov 2025 | Physics-informed AI platform for small-molecule discovery and AI-discovered therapeutics. | AI Lead Optimization | Unknown | $100M | North America | Follow-on | ARK Invest; Regeneron Ventures; NVIDIA; Mubadala Capital | Business Wire |
| Onepot AI | Nov 2025 | AI-enabled small-molecule synthesis platform using automated synthesis lab and AI chemist. | AI Lead Optimization | Seed | $13M | North America | First financing | not identified | TechCrunch |
| Chemify | Oct 2025 | AI, robotics, and digital chemistry platform for molecule design and synthesis. | AI Lead Optimization | Series B | $50M | Europe | Follow-on | Insight Partners; Wing Venture Capital | Business Wire |
| Expedition Medicines | Oct 2025 | Generative covalent chemistry for drugs against undruggable targets. | AI Lead Generation | Unknown | $50M | North America | First financing | Flagship Pioneering | PR Newswire |
| Lila Sciences | Oct 2025 | Final close/incremental Series A funding, bringing Series A to $350M. | AI Lead Generation | Series A | $115M | North America | Follow-on | NVentures; Catalio Capital Management; Flagship Pioneering; General Catalyst | Lila Sciences |
| Lila Sciences | Sep 2025 | First close of Series A for AI Science Factories/scientific superintelligence platform. | AI Lead Generation | Series A | $235M | North America | Follow-on | Flagship Pioneering | Fierce Biotech |
| Enveda Biosciences | Sep 2025 | AI-powered natural-product drug discovery and development platform. | AI Lead Generation | Series D+ | $150M | North America | Follow-on | not clearly identifiable from accessible excerpt | Enveda |
| Chai Discovery | Aug 2025 | Frontier AI models for molecular interaction prediction and de novo biologics design. | De Novo Design | Series A | $70M | North America | Follow-on | Menlo Ventures; Thrive Capital; OpenAI Startup Fund/DST | Business Wire |
| Synfini | Jul 2025 | AI Cloud Foundry for automated molecular design, synthesis, and small-molecule discovery. | AI Lead Generation | Unknown | $8.9M | North America | Follow-on | none identified | GlobeNewswire |
| Kiin Bio | Jun 2025 | AI-native Virtual Scientist platform for drug discovery and wet-lab execution. | AI Lead Generation | Seed | $2.2M | Europe | First financing | none identified | EU-Startups |
| Insilico Medicine | Jun 2025 | Oversubscribed Series E top-up to the March round, bringing total Series E to about $123M. | AI Lead Generation | Series D+ | $13M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Value Partners Group; Prosperity7 Ventures | Bio-IT World |
| OutSee | Jun 2025 | AI predictive genomics for CNS and rare-disease target discovery. | AI Target Discovery | Seed | $2.3M | Europe | First financing | none identified | Tech Funding News |
| ProteinQure | May 2025 | Computational peptide therapeutics using machine learning, structural biology, and simulations. | De Novo Design | Series A | $11M | North America | Follow-on | none identified | Business Wire |
| Inductive Bio | May 2025 | AI models for small-molecule ADMET and property prediction. | Preclinical Prediction AI | Series A | $25M | North America | Follow-on | a16z; Lux Capital; Obvious Ventures | Inductive Bio |
| Isomorphic Labs | Mar 2025 | AlphaFold-based AI drug design engine advancing therapeutic programs. | De Novo Design | Growth Equity | $600M | Europe | First external financing | Thrive Capital; GV; Alphabet | Isomorphic Labs |
| Insilico Medicine | Mar 2025 | Generative AI drug discovery platform for target identification, molecular design, and pipeline development. | AI Lead Generation | Series D+ | $110M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Value Partners Group | PR Newswire |
| Lila Sciences | Mar 2025 | Autonomous AI science platform and AI labs for life sciences, chemistry, and therapeutics discovery. | AI Lead Generation | Seed | $200M | North America | First financing | Flagship Pioneering; General Catalyst; ARK Venture Fund; ADIA | PR Newswire |
| Variational AI | Feb 2025 | Foundation model for small-molecule drug discovery and lead optimization. | AI Lead Generation | Seed | $5.5M | North America | Follow-on | Merck Global Health Innovation Fund | Business Wire |
| Latent Labs | Feb 2025 | Generative AI for de novo protein design and antibody optimization. | De Novo Design | Seed | $50M | Europe | First financing | Radical Ventures; Sofinnova Partners | Financial Times |
| Manas AI | Jan 2025 | AI-driven oncology and rare-disease drug discovery using generative computational chemistry and biology. | AI Lead Generation | Seed | $24.6M | North America | First financing | General Catalyst; Greylock | Manas AI |
| Bioptimus | Jan 2025 | Foundation models for biology, including medical and biotech discovery applications. | Preclinical Prediction AI | Seed | $41M | Europe | Follow-on | Sofinnova Partners; Bpifrance | Business Wire |
| Pepticom | Jan 2025 | AI-driven peptide therapeutics and computational peptide drug discovery. | AI Lead Optimization | Series A | $6.6M | Middle East | Follow-on | none identified | PR Newswire |
| AQEMIA | Dec 2024 | Uses generative AI and atomic-scale physics to invent drug candidates and progress internal preclinical programs. | AI Lead Generation | Growth Equity | $38M | Europe | Follow-on | Cathay Innovation | Business Wire |
| Enveda | Nov 2024 | Uses AI to mine natural-product chemistry and identify promising drug candidates. | AI Lead Generation | Series C | $130M | North America | Follow-on | Kinnevik; FPV Ventures; Baillie Gifford; Lux Capital | Bloomberg |
| Converge Bio | Nov 2024 | Provides generative AI models trained on DNA, RNA, protein, and small-molecule data to accelerate drug discovery and development. | AI Lead Generation | Seed | $5.5M | Middle East | First financing | TLV Partners | PR Newswire |
| Archon Biosciences | Oct 2024 | Uses computational protein design to create antibody cages and other protein structures for therapeutics. | De Novo Design | Seed | $20M | North America | First financing | Madrona Ventures; Alexandria Venture Investments | GeekWire |
| Noetik | Aug 2024 | Uses self-supervised machine learning and high-dimensional spatial biology data to discover and develop precision cancer therapies. | AI Target Discovery | Series A | $40M | North America | Follow-on | Polaris Partners; Khosla Ventures; Amgen Ventures; DCVC | Business Wire |
| Talus Bio | Aug 2024 | Uses AI-driven discovery and functional proteomics to identify and validate transcription-factor therapeutic targets. | AI Target Discovery | Unknown | $11.2M | North America | Follow-on | Two Bear Capital; NFX; Y Combinator | Talus Bio |
| Healx | Aug 2024 | Uses AI to discover and repurpose treatments for rare diseases. | AI Drug Repurposing | Series C | $47M | Europe | Follow-on | Atomico; Balderton; Intel Capital | Healx |
| Iambic Therapeutics | Jun 2024 | Uses AI-driven drug discovery to design and advance small-molecule therapeutics, especially in oncology. | AI Lead Optimization | Series B | $50M | North America | Follow-on | Mubadala Capital; Qatar Investment Authority; Coatue; Abingworth | Life Sciences USA |
| LabGenius | May 2024 | Uses machine learning and automated discovery to design and optimize therapeutic antibodies, especially multispecific antibodies. | AI Lead Optimization | Series B | $44.5M | Europe | Follow-on | M Ventures; Atomico; Lux Capital; Octopus Ventures | LabGenius |
| Yoneda Labs | Apr 2024 | Builds foundation models for chemists working in drug discovery. | Preclinical Prediction AI | Seed | $4M | North America | First financing | Khosla Ventures; Y Combinator | Business Wire |
| Xaira Therapeutics | Apr 2024 | Combines machine learning, data generation, and therapeutic product development to build an AI-powered drug discovery platform. | AI Lead Generation | Series A | $1,000M | North America | First financing | ARCH Venture Partners; Foresite Capital; F-Prime; NEA; Sequoia Capital; Lux Capital; Lightspeed Venture Partners; Menlo Ventures | Business Wire |
| Profluent | Mar 2024 | Develops generative AI models and datasets for designing and validating novel proteins, with a first vertical in gene editing. | De Novo Design | Unknown | $35M | North America | Follow-on | Spark Capital; Insight Partners; Air Street Capital | Business Wire |
| Relation Therapeutics | Mar 2024 | Uses machine learning and computational biology to identify and validate disease biology and drug targets, initially focused on osteoporosis. | AI Target Discovery | Seed | $35M | Europe | First financing | DCVC; NVentures; Khosla Ventures; Deerfield Management; ARK Invest | Axios |
| Bioptimus | Feb 2024 | Builds AI foundation models for biology intended to connect molecular, cellular, tissue, and organism-level data for biomedical R&D. | Preclinical Prediction AI | Seed | $35M | Europe | First financing | Sofinnova Partners; Bpifrance; Cathay Innovation | Bioptimus |
| AQEMIA | Jan 2024 | Uses generative AI plus deep physics to design small-molecule therapeutic candidates and build a proprietary discovery pipeline. | AI Lead Generation | Series A | $32.4M | Europe | Follow-on | Bpifrance; Eurazeo; Wendel Growth | Observer News Online |
INSIGHTS
The insights below come from reviewing disclosed equity rounds in the AI in drug discovery market across full-year 2024, full-year 2025, and year-to-date 2026 through May 2026.
- The AI in drug discovery market has shifted from a market where one giant company can define the year toward a market where a cluster of credible platforms can define the year. Xaira made 2024 look huge, but 2025 showed broader large-round capacity across Isomorphic Labs, Lila Sciences, Insilico Medicine, Enveda, Chai Discovery, Profluent, Iambic, and others.
- The 2026 slowdown in capital is less alarming than the headline decline suggests because the early-2025 comparison period was unusually distorted by several enormous rounds. The more important 2026 signal is that deal count rose sharply while round size fell, which points to breadth without late-stage heat.
- The market's center of gravity is no longer generic AI software. The strongest financings increasingly involve AI plus a mechanism for experimental closure, such as wet-lab validation, structural biology, robotics, physics, quantum chemistry, proprietary data, pharma deployment, or owned therapeutic programs.
- Median round size is the best quick diagnostic for the health of the middle of the market. The median rose from $35M in 2024 to $50M in 2025, then fell to $10M so far in 2026, which says the middle of the market became more robust in 2025 but reset to earlier-stage formation in 2026.
- Average round size is misleading in this market because single large platform financings can dominate the numerator. The gap between average and median round size was extreme in 2024 and still meaningful in 2025, so average round size should not be used alone to describe normal fundraising conditions.
- De Novo Design has the cleanest category-level improvement from 2024 to 2025. It moved from a minor capital category in 2024 to more than one-third of all 2025 funding, which suggests investors increasingly believe molecule and biologic design can support platform-scale venture outcomes.
- AI Lead Generation remains the anchor category because it is closest to asset creation. Across all three periods, investors paid most for platforms that can originate candidate matter rather than merely analyze, rank, or organize opportunities.
- Target Discovery has strategic value but weak standalone financing power. The repeated underweighting of Target Discovery by capital suggests that investors want target hypotheses to be connected to molecule generation, validation data, or an owned pipeline.
- Drug Repurposing has lost visible venture momentum as a pure-play category. Its absence from the 2025 and 2026 retained datasets suggests repurposing may survive as a feature inside broader discovery platforms, not as a strong standalone financing narrative.
- Preclinical Prediction AI is gaining formation momentum before it gains capital momentum. The increase in 2026 deal count shows interest in toxicity, safety, characterization, and virtual-lab infrastructure, but the small round sizes show that investors are still testing whether the category can scale.
- Europe is becoming a formation engine, not yet a large-check engine. Its 2026 deal share is higher than North America's, but its capital share is far lower, which means European AI drug discovery is active and technically credible while remaining less capital-intensive.
- North America remains the large-round center of gravity. Even when North America's deal share falls, its capital share stays high, which means regional leadership is now more about check size and syndicate depth than about startup count alone.
- Asia-Pacific has moved from absent to strategically relevant, but its momentum remains company-specific. Insilico Medicine carried much of the 2025 signal, while Galux and Peptris keep the region visible in 2026.
- First financings are a noisy signal in this market because some first financings are ordinary seed rounds and others are massive platform launches. Isomorphic Labs, Lila Sciences, and Xaira show why first financing does not always mean early or unvalidated.
- The strongest investor signal is specialist biotech plus elite AI-capital crossover. The highest-credibility syndicates combine life-science investors, frontier-tech investors, strategic pharma or biotech capital, and sometimes AI-native backers.
- Repeat investors matter more than investor headcount. A market with many one-off investors can still be shallow if few funds are willing to support multiple rounds across expensive biological validation cycles.
- The exclusion rules materially change the market picture. Broad biology foundation models, clinical-trial AI, diagnostics AI, industrial protein engineering, and healthcare workflow AI can inflate generic AI-for-biopharma trackers if they are not filtered out of a strict AI drug discovery dataset.
- The next winners are unlikely to be generic model-access companies. The stronger pattern is platforms with proprietary data, closed-loop experimentation, pharma-grade workflows, therapeutic-candidate ownership, or direct evidence that AI improves candidate quality.
- The market is fragmenting in technical wedges but consolidating in funding logic. Startups can attack many bottlenecks, but large checks are increasingly reserved for companies that can plausibly create, optimize, or validate therapeutic candidates.
- Year-to-date 2026 should be treated as fresh but preliminary. The absence of late-stage rounds matters, but the market has already shown that one or two large rounds later in the year can materially change the annual picture.
This chart, featured in our AI in drug discovery market deck, shows how AI drug discovery platform technology has evolved over time
OUR METHODOLOGY TO BUILD THIS TRACKER
We built this AI in drug discovery funding tracker by reviewing every publicly disclosed equity round raised by pure-play AI in drug discovery companies between January 2024 and May 2026. A company counts as pure-play when more than 80% of its activity is dedicated to AI-enabled software or related services that materially support therapeutic candidate identification or design before human trials.
We applied four filters to build the dataset. First, we only included equity rounds, so grants, debt, structured financings, SPAC transactions, acquisitions, business combinations, partnership upfronts, and licensing milestones are excluded. Second, we only counted disclosed rounds of $300K or more. Third, we only kept pure-play AI in drug discovery companies, which means we excluded clinical-trial operations, diagnostics, regulatory AI, manufacturing AI, pharmacovigilance, commercial analytics, generic healthcare AI, and companies where AI was ancillary rather than core. Fourth, every entry had to be confirmed by a direct company announcement, press release, tier-1 media report, specialist industry source, or relevant regional publication.
We included companies working across target discovery and validation, hit or lead generation, lead optimization, de novo design, drug repurposing, and preclinical prediction or assessment when their work fit the pure-play rule. We excluded undisclosed-amount rounds because including them would distort dollar-based metrics such as total capital, average round size, median round size, category shares, and concentration ratios. The 2026 figures are year-to-date figures through May 2026, so they should be read as current but incomplete-year indicators rather than full-year results.
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