Biotechnology startup Chai Discovery has raised $70 million, pushing its valuation to $550 million. The funding round included Menlo Ventures, Thrive Capital, OpenAI, DST Global Partners, and Yosemite, a cancer-focused VC firm founded by Steve Jobs’ son.
Founded in 2023 by Joshua Meier and Jack Dent, Chai Discovery is focused on developing faster and more effective treatments for hard-to-treat diseases. Leveraging artificial intelligence, the company has built a platform that accelerates the design of molecules capable of targeting specific proteins and altering their functions.
The company’s latest AI model, Chai-2, can design antibodies from scratch to target disease-causing proteins. In trials, the startup achieved success with 1 out of every 6 protein targets out of 50 tested — a remarkable leap compared to traditional methods, where success rates are typically 1 in 1,000.
Co-founder Jack Dent likens traditional drug discovery to “trying millions of keys until one happens to fit the lock.” With AI, Dent explains, scientists can now identify the target protein and “design a key specifically for that lock,” marking what he calls a “revolution at the cusp of biopharma’s shift from analog to digital.”
While AI-designed molecules are still in early clinical stages, none have yet received official regulatory approval. CEO Joshua Meier remains optimistic, stating, “The biotech world has seen many brilliant ideas end in failure, but we now have a far more solid technological foundation.”
In addition, Chai Discovery announced that Mikael Dolsten, former Chief Scientific Officer at Pfizer, has joined the company’s board of directors.
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