Cradle funding news – Zurich-based Cradle has Secured €69.5 Million in Series B Round Funding
Nov 26, 2024 | By Kailee Rainse
Cradle, a Swiss company that uses AI for protein engineering, has raised €69.5 million in a Series B funding round led by IVP, with support from previous investors Index Ventures and Kindred Capital.
SUMMARY
- Cradle, a Swiss company that uses AI for protein engineering, has raised €69.5 million in a Series B funding.
- Cradle believes that cells can potentially produce almost anything, like fabrics, food, fuel, and medicine.
This funding brings Cradle’s total raised to over €95.3 million, allowing the company to grow and speed up the use of its AI platform for protein research and development.
It’s technology helps solve problems in protein engineering, which is key to creating pharmaceuticals, eco-friendly pesticides, plant-based foods, and other sustainable solutions.
It explains that traditional methods of protein engineering are slow, expensive, and often unreliable, requiring years of research and many resources with no guarantee of success.
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
Omnea funding news – UK-based Omnea Secures $20Million in Series A Round Funding
Team SR
Oct 15, 2024
Read also - Taito.ai funding news - Helsinki-based Taito.ai has Secured €2.5 Million in Seed Funding
Aim of the Company
It's AI platform aims to speed up the process by reducing the number of experiments needed, making the discovery and development of better proteins faster and more affordable.
CEO and co-founder Stef van Grieken shared Cradle’s mission:“Cradle was founded on the belief that we could solve global planetary and human health challenges by using generative AI to rapidly accelerate the development of bio-based products. 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. Our Series B will make this next phase of growth possible and we’re delighted to have the backing of IVP to help us scale.”
The platform has shown its value in industries like medicine, diagnostics, food, chemicals, and agriculture, with clients such as Novo Nordisk, Johnson & Johnson, Novonesis, and Grifols.
Cradle’s technology also keeps data safe and protects intellectual property, letting companies maintain full control of the proteins they create. Its flexible design supports various uses in medicine and industry, including enzymes, antibodies, vaccines, peptides, and therapeutic proteins.
Alex Lim, General Partner at IVP, expressed optimism about Cradle’s future: “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.”
Puropse of fund raising
The Series B funding will help Cradle expand its lab to create more data for training its models to solve tougher problems. The company will also hire more engineers to improve its machine learning and support a wider range of tasks.
About Cradle
Cradle believes that cells can potentially produce almost anything, like fabrics, food, fuel, and medicine. Designing "cell factories" is difficult, but their tools and machine learning models can make it easier. Their goal is to eventually replace traditional farms and factories with more sustainable solutions.