Funding
Proximal Ventures raises debut fund to back startups bringing AI to drug development (opens techcrunch.com)
Former SignalFire investor Sahir Raoof's first fund targets AI in pharma.
Acquisition
Oura to acquire AI-native primary care startup Counsel Health for $625M (opens techcrunch.com)
Oura buys Counsel Health for $625M weeks after postponing its own IPO; Oura added Counsel's AI chatbot to its app earlier this year.
Launch
Ordo Labs: The AI-native OS for regulated labs (opens ycombinator.com)
We help the labs behind your medicines deliver study results 10x faster.
Funding
Sources: Google DeepMind spinout Isomorphic Labs is in talks to raise ~$5B at a ~$50B valuation; the AI drug discovery startup last raised $2.1B in May (opens bloomberg.com)
The Alphabet-owned AI drug discovery company would raise roughly $5B at about a $50B valuation, after a $2.1B round in May.
DiscussionUnverified claim
Building PureCliniq in Pune: helping vets keep caring for pets after the visit. Roast my site. (opens reddit.com)
Practice software for vets in Pune that keeps pet owners on doses and boosters after the visit.
DiscussionUnverified claim
The Reality of PopVax’s 8-week personalized mRNA vaccine (opens reddit.com)
Hyderabad's PopVax says its RNA Foundry can turn tumor sequencing data into a personalized mRNA vaccine candidate in eight to ten weeks.
Funding
Science robotics startup Opentrons raises $40M to standardize laboratory automation (opens siliconangle.com)
Opentrons will use the money to scale its lab robotics, software and data infrastructure.
Funding
Seattle startup Avante raises $30M to bring AI agents to corporate benefits teams (opens geekwire.com)
Avante says bookings grew nearly fivefold over the past year.
AnalysisOpinion
An Eval for AI Scientists That Knows the Answer Key - Ian Quigley, Leash Bio (opens youtube.com)
Leash Biosciences built a platform to physically measure thousands of proteins against millions of molecules. In this followup to our Leash Bio podcast with cofounder Ian Quigley, he returns to discuss the release of Minos, Leash’s framework of pre-measured experimental worlds that scientific…
Funding
Baba, which develops AI tools to help Medicare and Medicaid patients connect to care teams and handle advocacy tasks, raised a $40M Series A led by FirstMark (Cailey Gleeson/Fierce Healthcare) (opens fiercehealthcare.com)
Baba builds AI tools that help Medicare and Medicaid patients connect to care teams and handle advocacy tasks; FirstMark led the round.
DiscussionUnverified claim
Indian parents’ entire medical history lives in one plastic bag. I built a way out. (opens reddit.com)
The doctor asked what my mom’s sugar level was last year. Simple question. My dad pulled out the plastic bag of reports (you know the one), I scrolled through my gallery, nothing. The test got done again. That annoyed me enough to build something. It’s called KinLab.
News
The UK plans to invest £100M to create the AI Biosecurity Lab, supported by OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind (opens bbc.com)
The Next Web reports OpenAI and Anthropic will add up to £200m between them to the UK government's £100m lab.
Funding
AI drug development startup Pathos AI closes $237M investment (opens siliconangle.com)
Bristol Myers Squibb led the Series E at a $3 billion valuation.
Funding
Ex-OpenAI science chief Kevin Weil launches Warp Sciences with $215M for drug chemistry (opens siliconangle.com)
Kevin Weil, formerly OpenAI's science lead, is building a chemistry contract research organization; TechCrunch says human chemists will train robots for lab tasks.
