AI startup Latent Labs has announced its launch, raising a total of $50m in funding to advance the development of AI models for programmable biology.
Founded by Dr Simon Kohl, a former DeepMind researcher, the company co-headquartered in London and San Francisco aims to accelerate progress and partnerships in AI-powered programmable biology.
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The funding comprises $40m raised in a Series A financing round, which was jointly led by Radical Ventures and Sofinnova Partners.
The funding round also saw participation from Flying Fish, Isomer, and existing investors 8VC, Kindred Capital, and Pillar VC.
Furthermore, angel investors including Google chief scientist Jeff Dean, Transformer architecture inventor and Cohere founder Aidan Gomez, and ElevenLabs founder Mati Staniszewski also took part.
Latent Labs plans to use the funds to advance its research and expand collaborations.
Latent Labs CEO and founder Simon Kohl said: “Every biotechnology or pharmaceutical company wants to be at the forefront of technology to find the best therapeutic molecules, yet not all are in a position to develop the most advanced AI models for the job.
“That’s where Latent Labs comes in. We push the frontiers of generative biology, giving our partners instant access to tools that accelerate their drug design programmes.”
Latent Labs’ research builds on advances in protein structure prediction, such as DeepMind’s AlphaFold.
The company is developing generative AI methods to design proteins from scratch, with applications in drug discovery and biotechnology.
This approach aims to enable the creation of therapeutic molecules, such as antibodies and enzymes, with optimised properties.
Commenting on the investment, Sofinnova Partners partner Edward Kliphuis said: “Latent Labs transforms biology from an observational science into an engineering craft, granting us precise control over life’s building blocks.
In practical terms, it means crafting bespoke molecules that tackle challenges once thought insurmountable.”
