A16z-Backed AI-Focused Biotech Startup Hauls $200M

Genisis Therapeutics, an Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Bio + Health-backed startup that uses artificial intelligence to build small molecule drugs, has raised $200 million in Series B funding, one of the largest amounts for an AI-focused biotech this year.

Along with a16z, which led the company’s seed financing, an unnamed US-based life-sciences-focused investor co-led the funding round.

New investors in the Burlingame, CA-based company included Fidelity Management & Research Company, BlackRock, and NVIDIA’s venture capital arm NVentures, along with existing investors T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Rock Springs Capital, Radical Ventures, and Menlo Ventures.

The funds will be used to further the company’s generative and predictive AI capabilities, extend its pipeline, and take its first computer-generated pharmaceuticals into clinical trials.

“AI presents a potent opportunity to revolutionize the drug discovery process, which frequently struggles to produce viable drug candidates against targets that are biologically well-validated but considered undruggable due to highly challenging chemistry,” said CEO Evan Feinberg, Ph.D.

The funding brings the total capital raised to over $280 million. In addition to the Series B raise, Genesis further announced that approximately $24 million of SAFE notes from a prior financing round, led by Radical Ventures, converted alongside the close of the Series B.

Genesis previously raised a $52 million Series A, led by Rock Springs Capital, and a seed round of $4 million, led by a16z Bio + Health. Genesis has also previously announced collaborations with Genentech and Eli Lilly.