Chai Discovery Secures $130M for AI-Driven Drug Discovery

Chai Discovery, a biotech startup backed by OpenAI, has announced a $130 million Series B funding round, achieving a valuation of $1.3 billion. This funding round was led by General Catalyst and Oak HC/FT, with participation from Menlo Ventures, Dimension, Thrive Capital, Neo, Yosemite venture fund, Lachy Groom, SV Angel, and new investors Glade Brook and Emerson Collective.

With this latest funding, Chai Discovery's total funding exceeds $225 million. Chai Discovery is part of a growing industry leveraging artificial intelligence to accelerate drug development. The firm previously secured $70 million in a Series A round.

According to Menlo Ventures, Chai is focused on building foundation models tailored for drug discovery, specifically to predict interactions between biochemical molecules for potential cures. The company has rolled out its latest model, Chai 2, which reportedly shows significant improvements in success rates for de novo antibody design.

Chai Discovery's co-founder and CEO, Josh Meier, noted that their models can create molecules with desirable drug properties and address challenging targets that have previously been difficult to reach.

Chai Discovery was founded in 2024 and aims to develop a comprehensive computer-aided design suite for molecular creation.