OpenAI-backed biotech company Chai Discovery raises $130 million Series B at $1.3 billion valuation

OpenAI-backed biotech startup Chai Discovery on Monday announced a $130 million Series B round at a valuation of $1.3 billion.

The company said the round was led by General Catalyst and Oak HC/FT. Other participants include Menlo Ventures, OpenAI, Dimension, Thrive Capital, Neo, Yosemite Venture Fund, Lachy Groom, SV Angel, and new investors Glade Brook and Emerson Collective. The company’s total funding currently exceeds $225 million.

The company is part of a growing industry that sees AI as a faster route to drug development. In August, Menlo Ventures announced it would lead Chai’s $70 million Series A round. The investor described Chai as a startup that builds fundamental models tailored for drug discovery, particularly those that predict interactions between biochemical molecules and can be reprogrammed toward treatments.

Chai says the goal is to “build a ‘computer-aided design suite’ for molecules.” Last year, the startup introduced the Chai 1 AI model and now offers its latest model, Chai 2. The company says Chai 2 has a significantly improved success rate compared to other de novo antibody design methods, which means building custom antibodies from scratch rather than modifying existing antibodies.

“Our latest model allows us to engineer molecules with the properties needed in real drugs and tackle difficult targets that were previously out of reach,” Chai co-founder and CEO Josh Meyer said in a prepared statement.

Meyer, who has a background in machine learning, previously worked in research and engineering at Facebook and before that at OpenAI, according to LinkedIn. Chai Discovery’s profile states that it was founded in 2024.