AI Startups: Google DeepMind CEO’s Startup Raises $600 Million
The drug development artificial intelligence (AI) startup founded by Google DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis has raised $600 million in its first external funding round.
Isomorphic Labs uses advanced AI models to revolutionize and accelerate drug discovery in different therapeutic areas.
Notably, the startup said its founding was built on AlphaFold, which won Hassabis a Nobel Prize for predicting the structure of virtually all known proteins, solving a half-century biology challenge.
Isomorphic’s goal is to find a cure for all diseases by advancing its AI drug design engine and pushing therapeutic programs into clinical development. Hassabis said the startup is using an interdisciplinary approach.
The funding represents a “significant step forward towards our mission of one day solving all disease with the help of AI,” said Hassabis, who shared the Nobel Prize with DeepMind researcher John Jumper for AlphaFold2.
The round was led by Thrive Capital, with participation from GV and follow-on investment from existing backer Alphabet, the parent of Google and Google DeepMind. GV is Alphabet’s venture arm.
The startup’s proprietary AI platform integrates breakthroughs like AlphaFold 3 — developed jointly with Google DeepMind — to accurately predict the structure and interaction of biological molecules.
Its drug pipeline includes partnerships with industry giants Novartis and Eli Lilly, alongside internal programs focused on oncology and immunology.
Isomorphic Labs plans to use the funding to expand its team and accelerate its AI research and development.
Read more: Google DeepMind CEO: AI-Designed Drugs Coming to Clinical Trials in 2025
Agility Robotics to Raise $400 Million
Agility Robotics is raising $400 million in new funding, according to The Information. The funding round brings the startup’s valuation up to $1.75 billion.
Leading the round is the venture arm of WP Global Partners, and SoftBank reportedly is set to join as well.
The Oregon State University spinout is the brains behind Digit, a humanoid robot that has been commercially deployed in retail and eCommerce warehousing, logistics and manufacturing industries.
Digit, which does things like move bins in warehouses among other repetitive tasks, is deployed at Amazon warehouses as well as by other customers.
Digit stands at 5’9” and can carry 35 pounds; the robot will also dock and charge itself autonomously.
The startup said there are one million vacant positions in material handling across industries, and its robots can fill that gap.
Agility Robotics offers a robots-as-a-service plan that is subscription-based. Customers could also choose to purchase a robot fleet.
Read more: Report: SoftBank to Invest $1 Trillion in AI-Powered Robot Factories in U.S.
Software Startup Lands $146 Million
Temporal Technologies, whose durable execution platform is used in the payments, eCommerce and air travel industries, announced that it has raised $146 million in a Series C round for a valuation of $1.7 billion.
Leading the round is Tiger Global, with participation from StepStone Group, Amplify Partners, Index Ventures, MongoDB Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Conversion Capital, Hanwha Next Generation Opportunity Fund and 137 Ventures.
The round brings Temporal’s total funding to $350 million.
The new funding will speed up product development for its managed service Temporal Cloud and expand the reach of Temporal’s durable execution platform into AI use cases of all types.
To support this expansion, Temporal plans to double down on go-to-market programs while continuing to invest in R&D for AI use cases.
Temporal offers tools that help software developers build apps that can keep running smoothly, even if there is a system crash or server issue. That means developers don’t have to spend time worrying about how to keep the system stable but focus on building better applications.
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