Radical Numerics raises $50M seed for biological AI models

Radical Numerics raises $50M seed for biological AI models

Radical Numerics, an AI research lab for biological data, raised a $50 million seed round, CEO Eric Nguyen tells Axios.

The big picture: Pharma giants are signing AI partnerships and scaling internal tools to support R&D.

Follow the money: Emergence Capital led the round, and Obvious Ventures, Triatomic Capital, Factory and First Spark Ventures joined.

How it works: The San Francisco-based company trains models directly on raw biological data, like DNA, RNA, proteins and other molecular signals, to reason across diagnostics, biological design and biosecurity.

  • "We've created a tool that can detect AI-generated viruses," Nguyen says. "It's a new generation of emerging threats."

    • Zoom in: Nguyen says Radical Numeric's early partnerships include a commercial engagement with a U.S. national lab and a separate cancer diagnostics collaboration.

    Between the lines: Last year, VCs invested $3.2 billion across 135 AI drug development startups.

  • Since 2019, they've invested more than $17 billion in AI drug discovery, per PitchBook.

    • Yes, but: AI-developed drugs have yet to reach large-scale clinical trials.

    Catch up quick: AI in biotech is shifting toward core R&D, as drugmakers look to shorten discovery and development timelines.

  • Novo Nordisk, Merck and Bristol Myers Squibb have all signed recent AI partnerships with OpenAI, Google Cloud and Faro, respectively.
  • OpenAI introduced GPT-Rosalind, a life sciences reasoning model designed to support biology and drug discovery.

    • What we're watching: Radical plans to release several flagship models this year as it looks to prove that biological foundation models can work across real-world applications, Nguyen says.