News Summary

Latent Labs, a new startup founded by Simon Kohl, a former Google DeepMind scientist, has launched with $50 million in funding to revolutionize the field of biology through AI. The company aims to make biology programmable by building AI foundation models that can create and optimize proteins. This innovation seeks to reduce the reliance on traditional wet lab experiments by allowing computational creation of new therapeutic molecules. Latent Labs plans to partner with biotech and pharmaceutical companies to expedite and de-risk the early stages of research and development. The startup’s business model focuses on enabling other companies by giving them access to its models or supporting their discovery programs through partnerships. The investment includes a previously unannounced $10 million seed tranche and a $40 million Series A round, co-led by Radical Ventures and Sofinnova Partners, with participation from other investors including Google’s chief scientist Jeff Dean. The funding will be used to hire new talent, scale the company’s models, and build infrastructure for commercial partnerships.