Chai Discovery, a biotech startup backed by OpenAI, announced a $130 million Series B funding round on Monday, bringing its valuation to $1.3 billion.
General Catalyst and Oak HC/FT led the funding, with participation from Menlo Ventures, OpenAI, Dimension, Thrive Capital, Neo, Yosemite venture fund, Lachy Groom, SV Angel, and new investors Glade Brook and Emerson Collective. With this round, the company’s total funding has exceeded $225 million.
Chai Discovery is part of a growing sector that leverages AI to accelerate drug development. In August, Menlo Ventures led Chai’s $70 million Series A funding round, highlighting the startup’s work on foundation models specifically designed for drug discovery. These models aim to predict interactions between biochemical molecules, allowing for the creation of new cures.
The company aims to create a “computer-aided design suite” for molecules. Last year, they launched the Chai 1 AI model, and they are now providing Chai 2, their latest iteration. Chai claims that Chai 2 significantly improves success rates for de novo antibody design, which involves creating custom antibodies from scratch rather than modifying existing ones.
“Our latest models can design molecules with properties suited for real drugs and address challenging targets that have been historically difficult to reach,” said Josh Meier, Chai’s co-founder and CEO, in a statement.
Before co-founding Chai, Meier, who specializes in machine learning, worked in research and engineering roles at Facebook and previously at OpenAI, according to his LinkedIn profile. Chai Discovery was founded in 2024, as noted in the profile.
