Causaly raises $60M to fuel generative AI-powered drug discovery

Causaly, a five-year-old drug discovery AI startup that already counts 12 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies among its customers, today announced a fresh $60 million in series B funding to further expand its footprint in the U.S.

The latest funding round is led by ICONIQ Growth along with participating investors Index Ventures, Marathon Ventures, EBRD and Pentech Ventures, bringing Causaly’s total funding to date to $93 million. 

Causaly is based in London, UK, and San Francisco. It says its “best-in-class” knowledge graph, combined with generative AI solutions, enables biomedical researchers to synthesize and reference the thousands of published research papers, uncovering new insights and analyzing the available scientific data much more rapidly than they could before. 

Essentially, it uses machine learning to automate the prior, heavily manual processes of biomedical research and discovery, under the direction and control of the trained researchers, allowing them to be far more efficient with the same sources of data they would be looking at otherwise.  

Causaly cites a “10x productivity gain” for researchers using its software, and a spokesperson says it means that the research that used to take two-to-three years now takes just two-to-three weeks. 

Ultimately, the company hopes and believes this can lead researchers to uncover promising new treatments for “the most complex and unsolved diseases of our age, such as Parkinson’s, lung cancer or multiple sclerosis.” 

“Recent advances in AI open completely new possibilities, and there is a great need to develop transparent AI systems that science leaders can trust,” said Yiannis Kiachopoulos, Co-founder and CEO of Causaly, in a statement provided to VentureBeat. “Knowledge is the lifeblood of research organizations, and we remain committed to our mission to make it discoverable, working with our customers to make sense of their scientific data and apply insights to enable evidence-driven decisions.”

Clearly, the organization and its backers believe that Causaly has the right ingredients to take those recent AI advances and apply them to Causaly’s existing software products in ways that advance them and the entire field of medicine — while adhering to strict medical regulations and best practices.