EPFL spin-off Baio Labs lands $181,000 grant for AI drug design
What's the deal? Baio LabsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, an EPFL spin-off, has won a US$137.5K (roughly $181,000) grant from Venture KickDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → to advance its generative AI platform for early-stage drug discovery. The Ecublens-based startup designs novel molecules for specific therapeutic targets in seconds, aiming to help researchers find promising drug candidates faster and at lower cost.
What's the endgame? Its platform, Drugon, shifts drug discovery from searching existing chemical libraries to rationally designing new molecules for a given target. Powered by a generative AI model that factors in the three-dimensional structure of the target, it brings molecular design, synthesis, and experimental validation into one integrated ecosystem.
Why now? Traditional discovery screens large molecule libraries, a process that can take years, cost millions of dollars, and still explore only a tiny fraction of possible molecules. Baio Labs is targeting the expanding computational drug discovery market and wants to work with pharmaceutical companies to cut their development timelines and costs.
Who's behind it? The platform is being built by EPFL PhD students Ilia Igashov and Arne Schneuing, alongside professor Bruno Correia. The grant will fund RD and the company's go-to-market strategy.
“Venture Kick's support has been instrumental for us to achieve our early business development goals and get ready for future equity investments,” said Igashov, the chief executive officer.
The signal: The grant is modest, sitting around the midpoint for deals of its kind. But it signals early validation for a wave of startups applying generative AI to structure-based drug design, a field where speed and cost reductions could reshape how pharmaceutical companies pursue new candidates.
Read more: startupticker.ch
Image credit: IBM Research
