Warp Sciences, the startup launched by Kevin Weil, OpenAI’s former head of science, has raised $215 million. Its goal is to train robots to make and test molecules in order to speed up drug discovery.
With Warp Sciences, Kevin Weil is entering the market for pharmaceutical lab automation. The company plans to combine artificial intelligence and robotics to handle the chemical work needed to research new treatments, including making and evaluating compounds identified by researchers.
Lightspeed leads Warp Sciences’ $215 million funding round
Kevin Weil announced on X that Warp Sciences had raised $215 million, at a valuation of $865 million. Both figures were provided by the founder: the first is the funding secured by the startup, the second its announced valuation.
The round was led by Lightspeed, with participation from IVP, Mayfield, Lux Capital, Premji Invest and Menlo Ventures.
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The funding supports a company that wants to automate part of the experimental work involved in drug discovery, rather than limiting itself to the computational identification of promising molecules.
How Warp Sciences trains lab robots using chemists fitted with sensors
Warp Sciences’ approach relies on teaching robots laboratory movements from the work of human chemists. Employees will wear cameras and sensor-equipped gloves while they work, providing data to train the robots.
The machines will need to learn a range of experimental tasks, including making and testing the promising compounds identified by researchers.
Warp Sciences is therefore targeting the automation of experimental chemistry labs, known as wet labs, where scientists physically handle substances and carry out chemical reactions.
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The company aims to run its robots continuously, day and night, to speed up the cycles of making and testing molecules. This round-the-clock operation is a goal announced by Warp Sciences.
Reducing pharma’s reliance on chemistry outsourced to China
Beyond automation, Warp Sciences has an industrial objective: bringing back part of the chemical synthesis work currently outsourced to China.
For several years, biotech companies have relied on specialist contractors for the labour-intensive work of synthesising thousands of molecular variants. The Chinese group WuXi AppTec is one of the companies providing this outsourced work.
Kevin Weil wants to use robotics to relocate these operations and reduce the exposure of pharmaceutical development to the geopolitical risks facing supply chains.
Warp Sciences thus intends to work on a specific industrial stage: the experimental production and testing of candidate molecules, between their identification by researchers and the later phases of drug development.