Alphabet-Backed Isomorphic Labs Raises $600M For AI Drug Development

Google spinoff Isomorphic Labs raised $600 million in its first external funding round as the company looks to apply artificial intelligence to the drug development process.

The new round was led by Thrive Capital with participation from Google Ventures. The London-based AI company will receive follow-on capital from existing investor Alphabet.

Isomorphic was spun out of Google DeepMind in 2021.

“This funding will further turbocharge the development of our next-generation AI drug design engine, help us advance our own programs into clinical development, and is a significant step forward towards our mission of one day solving all disease with the help of AI,” founder and CEO Sir Demis Hassabis said in a statement.

AI and biotech

The round is just the latest big raise by a startup using AI in the pursuit of drug development.

Some notable raises in the past year-plus include San Francisco-based Xaira Therapeutics securing a $1 billion Series A last spring led by Arch Venture Partners and Foresite Capital, and New York-based Formation Bio locking up $372 million in a Series D last summer led by Andreessen Horowitz.

The deal is also another big investment for Thrive, the New York-based investment firm co-founded by Joshua Kushner. The firm led Databricks’ massive $10 billion raise at a $62 billion valuation last December. The deal was the largest venture capital raise of 2024 and one of the largest on record.

It also led OpenAI’s big $6.6 billion round in October that valued the company at $150 billion.