Isomer Capital backs Latent Labs in $50M Series A

Isomer Capital backs Latent Labs in $50M Series A to revolutionize AI-powered drug discovery

At Isomer, we are committed to backing transformative companies at the forefront of innovation. That’s why we are thrilled to announce our investment in Latent Labs, an AI-driven biotech company that is redefining the future of drug discovery. Coming out of stealth with a $50M Series A round, Latent Labs is set to accelerate the design of synthetic proteins, revolutionising how pharmaceutical companies develop life-saving treatments.

The Vision Behind Latent Labs

Founded by Simon Kohl, a former DeepMind scientist who played a pivotal role in the groundbreaking AlphaFold2 system, Latent Labs is harnessing generative AI to make biology programmable. The company’s mission is to provide biotech and pharma companies with instant access to powerful AI tools that can accelerate the drug design process.

“In a perfect world, the dream of purely computational drug discovery comes to life,” Kohl explained. “You tell me, this is the sort of disease you’re going after. Maybe there’s a target protein that you have in mind. And at a push of a button, we can generate candidates that meet all of the criteria you care about, which de-risks the steps that come after, shaves time off the process, and at the end of the day, will yield better drugs, faster.”

A New Model for AI in Pharma

While many AI-driven biotech startups aim to develop their own drugs, Latent Labs is taking a different approach. Rather than competing with pharmaceutical companies, Latent Labs acts as a service provider, offering a generative AI platform that allows pharma companies to enhance their own drug discovery pipelines. This model enables Latent Labs to work closely with top-tier drugmakers, providing them with cutting-edge computational tools that significantly reduce the time and cost of bringing new therapies to market.

A Stellar Team and Strong Investor Backing

Latent Labs has assembled an exceptional team of AI researchers and biotech experts from leading institutions such as DeepMind, Microsoft, Google, and Altos Labs. The company’s vision and expertise have attracted an impressive lineup of investors, with the Series A round co-led by Radical Ventures and Sofinnova Partners. Other backers include Pillar VC, Kindred Capital VC, 8VC, Flying Fish Partners, and Isomer Capital. Notably, angel investors such as Google’s Chief Scientist Jeff Dean and Aidan Gomez, co-inventor of the Transformer architecture, are also supporting the company.

We are excited to be part of Latent Labs’ journey and look forward to seeing how their groundbreaking technology transforms drug development.