AI biotech company Cradle has raised $73 million in a Series B funding round led by IVP and backed by Index Ventures and Kindred Capital, bringing its total funding to over $100 million.
Based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Zurich, Switzerland, Cradle was founded by ex-Googlers Stef van Grieken (CEO) and Daniel Danciu (CTO) in 2021 to make biology engineering more accessible and efficient with AI. Its team comprises machine learning and biotech research specialists from leading companies such as Zymergen, Novartis, Uber, Meta, DeepMind, and Perfect Day.
AI-powered protein engineering platform
The funds will help Cradle scale its operations to accelerate the adoption of its core product — an AI-powered protein engineering platform — designed to discover and develop animal-free foods, life-changing therapeutics, and sustainable pesticides and oil-free chemicals “easier, faster, and more cost-effective.”
“Our goal is now to put Cradle’s software into the hands of a million scientists”
Additionally, the round will expand Cradle’s wet lab (it sells software but is still a biotech company) and engineering teams to address more complex challenges in protein design.
“Over the past two years, our own research and our collaborations with partners have proven that this technology can deliver remarkable results across a range of applications, from developing new vaccines and sustainable chemicals, to novel diagnostics and agricultural crop protection. Our goal is now to put Cradle’s software into the hands of a million scientists and empower them to build great products.”
Protein design as a digital service
Cradle says it is experiencing rapid growth and has expanded its customer base by partnering with companies like Novo Nordisk, Ginkgo Bioworks, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, Novonesis, and Grifols for R&D across various sectors, including therapeutics, diagnostics, food, chemicals, and agriculture.
The company explains that the key to its success lies in its AI platform’s unique approach, which allows it to dramatically reduce the number of experimental rounds needed, making research more cost-effective and faster.
“Biology is one of the domains where generative AI can have the biggest positive impact
Results show that the platform can accelerate discovery and development up to a 12-fold increase in speed compared to traditional methods.”It can take years and many millions of dollars to run a successful R&D process, and many projects are never completed successfully because they cannot achieve their targets,” says the biotech company.
Cradle’s AI platform can also generate models tailored to customer objectives and can expand to pharmaceutical and industrial applications, including enzymes, antibodies, peptides, vaccines, and therapeutic proteins. In addition, its SaaS model protects intellectual property and ensures data security.
Alex Lim, General Partner at IVP, commented: “Biology is one of the domains where generative AI can have the biggest positive impact, and Cradle is leading the way with its pioneering approach to protein design as a digital service.
“Given the costs associated with drug discovery or similar fields of research, any efficiencies at the R&D stage will translate to both major financial returns for customers and significant real-world benefits for humanity. With impressive results delivered by Cradle’s platform just two years after launch, we see a bright future ahead for one of Europe’s — and the world’s — most consequential AI companies.”
The US companies Shiru and AlphaFold are also deploying AI to accelerate the development of sustainable products across multiple fields.
