US Drug Discovery Startup Backed by OpenAI Valued at 760 Billion Won
Raised 97 Billion Won in Series A Funding
An artificial intelligence (AI)-based drug discovery startup, invested in by OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, has raised $70 million (approximately 97 billion won) at a company valuation of $550 million (about 760 billion won).
According to the Financial Times (FT) on August 6 (local time), Chai Discovery secured $70 million in Series A funding from Thrive Capital, OpenAI, Yosemite, and Anthology Fund, among others.
The successful fundraising appears to reflect expectations that AI will transform the drug development market. Greg Yap, a partner at Menlo Ventures who established the Anthology Fund, described the company as "a business that combines deep AI talent with biological expertise."
With this investment, Chai Discovery, a company in its second year since founding, is now able to compete with Isomorphic Labs, Google DeepMind’s AI-based drug discovery subsidiary.
However, FT pointed out that, despite the excitement in the investment industry, there has yet to be a case where a drug developed by AI has received official approval. CEO Joshua Meyer addressed these concerns, saying, "There have been many false starts, but now, thanks to advances in AI, innovation is possible on a much more solid technological foundation."
The company’s latest model, Chai-2, has designed antibodies targeting 50 disease-causing proteins. Of these, about one-sixth successfully bound to the target proteins. The company claimed that this is a significantly higher success rate compared to the previous average of one in one thousand.
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Co-founder Jack Dent compared traditional drug development methods to a trial-and-error process, like waiting for one correct key out of a million to fit. He said, "In the past, we would randomly make keys and try them, but now we can look at the protein and say, 'This is the lock, design a key to fit it.'" He added, "The bio and pharmaceutical market will shift from analog to digital, and this transition will happen as fast as a train."
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