Inherent emerges from stealth with $50M seed to build AI-native science
What's the deal? London-based AI lab Inherent has emerged from stealth with a $50M funding round to build what it calls "AI-native science" — a new approach to scientific research that pairs human curiosity with advanced AI systems. The round was led by Index Ventures with participation from Radical VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
The company was founded by former DeepMindDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → researchers Tantum Collins, Edward Hughes, and Louis Kirsch, alongside Kaloyan Aleksiev, who previously worked at AI startup Reka AI and Microsoft. Its AI platform, "Faraday," aims to combine human scientific inquiry with AI to produce novel inventions and innovations.
Former UK government AI tsar Matt Clifford, cofounder of Entrepreneurs First, has been recruited as an adviser. Early angel investors and hires include specialists in technical AI safety and democratic applications of AI.
Why now? Collins and Hughes previously collaborated on frontier research into cooperative AI at DeepMind, before Collins moved into AI policy work at the Biden White House. Their bet is that AI has matured enough to go beyond answering questions — and start identifying which questions are worth asking in the first place.
"Most AI is built to answer questions. What it can't do (yet) is figure out which questions are worth asking — the open-ended curiosity that produced penicillin, the microwave, the GPU," said Danny Rimer, partner at Index Ventures. "That's the gap Inherent is building into."
What could go wrong? "AI for science" is a crowded pitch. DeepMind itself has made major strides with AlphaFold and other scientific tools, and a growing number of startups are targeting the same intersection of AI and research. Inherent will need to show its platform can deliver genuine scientific breakthroughs, not just incremental productivity gains.
The signal: The round reflects a continued exodus of top talent from major AI labs into startups, with Index Ventures — one of Europe's most prominent funds — backing the thesis that AI-driven scientific discovery could become a major category in its own right. Radical Ventures, which has built its portfolio around foundational AI bets, adds further credibility to the wager that London remains a serious launchpad for frontier AI companies.
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