Onyx raises $8M seed to build a virtual immune system
What's the deal? Onyx, a research collective modelling how real people respond to infection, inflammation, and treatment, has raised an $8 million seed round. Dimension CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → led, with Haystack, Refactor CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, StandardDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and Robot VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → participating.
What's the endgame? Onyx is building what it calls a virtual immune system — a model of the immune system's behaviour across real people over time. It tracks members for months and years, measuring roughly 1,000 proteins, gene expression in individual immune cells, metabolites, and genetic variation, paired with clinical histories.
Why now? Founded in early 2025, Onyx says nearly a thousand members have joined its studies. The funding will grow the dataset and help researchers turn its findings into new medicines.
The company frames the work as "ground truth for AI," arguing that models are only as good as the data behind them. Study visits can happen at home, and Onyx says Protected Health Information is never sold or shared outside of a study.
By the numbers: At $8 million, the round lands in roughly the 92nd percentile for seed rounds in health over the trailing 48 months, based on a sample of 6,107 deals.
The signal: Investors are backing longitudinal, multi-layered biological data as the foundation for AI-driven drug discovery. Onyx's bet is that modelling the immune system in real people — not cell lines or single snapshots — offers the kind of reliable data medicine's AI tools still lack.
Read more: onyx.bio
Image credit: Onyx Bio
