In the field of biotechnology, the use of artificial intelligence to accelerate research has become a new norm. Recently, the biotech company Cradle announced the completion of a $73 million funding round, planning to further expand its laboratory and team. Founded in 2022, Cradle is dedicated to exploring the applications of language models in biotechnology. Founder and CEO Stef van Grieken vividly referred to the combinations of amino acids and bases as "alien programming languages," although AI models can interpret this language to some extent.
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Cradle's goal is to accelerate testing of macromolecules (such as proteins) through AI technology. Proteins have countless applications in medicine and industry, and the company helps clients achieve their goals by identifying and recommending sequences that can influence protein characteristics. For instance, when developing a useful protein, if stability at high temperatures is desired, the model will identify sequences that easily decompose at high temperatures and recommend alternative solutions that do not affect its function.
In 2023, Cradle successfully completed a $24 million Series A funding round and continues to serve clients in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Van Grieken stated that clients generally value the acceleration and cost savings achieved by reducing the number of experiments. He noted that companies developing antibody therapies or detergent enzymes typically need to conduct dozens of experimental rounds to improve the efficacy, safety, and manufacturability of proteins. These experiments can cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars and require significant time and resources, while the application of AI can effectively reduce these uncertainties.
Cradle adopts a straightforward software-as-a-service (SaaS) business model, avoiding issues related to royalties, revenue sharing, or intellectual property, which has been well received by clients. Van Grieken mentioned that current competitors in the market mainly fall into two categories: those that closely collaborate to co-develop drugs or processes, and Cradle, which focuses on providing software services. Van Grieken believes that AI in drug discovery and development will ultimately become a universal technology that any team should be able to utilize.
Although Cradle's primary business is software, it still operates as a biotechnology company. Van Grieken stated that they have a laboratory in Amsterdam specifically for conducting A/B testing on different types of proteins and developing "foundational datasets" to help models learn protein characteristics, benefiting all clients. Additionally, they need to regularly train and adjust these datasets.
This funding round was led by IVP, with participation from Index Ventures and Kindred Capital, and the funds will be used to expand the laboratory and recruit new talent. Van Grieken stated in a press release: "Our goal is to put Cradle's software in the hands of one million scientists."
Key Points:
🌟 Cradle completes $73 million funding round, plans to expand its laboratory and team, dedicated to accelerating protein design.
🔬 The company provides services to the biotech and pharmaceutical industries through AI technology, helping to reduce the number of experiments and costs.
💼 Adopts a simple SaaS business model, avoiding complex issues like royalties, aiming to make AI technology accessible to more scientists.
