Former OpenAI Executive Raises $215M for Robotic Labs

SAN FRANCISCO – Warp Sciences, a startup founded by a former OpenAI executive Kevin Weil, has secured $215 million in funding for developing robotic laboratories in order to automate the process of drugs discovery.

The startup went out of stealth mode on Oct. 22, revealing that its latest fundraising round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with the participation of IVP, Mayfield, Lux Capital, Premji Invest, and Menlo Ventures, among other investors.

According to Bloomberg, the funding round values Warp Sciences at $865 million post-money valuation.

Warp Sciences is constructing a U.S.-based contract research organization to manufacture and test chemical compounds for pharmaceutical companies. The company's labs will be comprised of human chemists together with AI technologies and robots, capable of conducting physical experiments.

The first product of the company targets the lead optimization stage, which is part of the drug discovery process.
Robotic systems will be used by Warp to automate laboratory tasks, gathering experimental data for training AI models. Initially, lab activities will be guided by humans who are chemists; however, automation will increase as technology advances.

Moreover, Warp is creating software for integration of experimental design, robot execution and laboratory result analysis. The objective is to learn from data collected through previous experiments and apply the learning in future experiments.

Previously, Weil was working as OpenAI’s chief product officer, leading the AI for science initiative there. He founded Warp along with former U.S. chief data scientist DJ Patil, former Meta AI researcher Mano Paluri and medicinal chemist Solomon Reisberg.

The startup is not planning to create any proprietary medicines. Rather, it will offer chemistry services to drug companies and biotech clients, who will be responsible for their research initiatives.

No information about the number of robots to be installed, price of its automated labs or productivity comparison with non-automated chemistry services is available.