In a significant stride forward in the biotech industry, Cradle, a startup based in Delft, The Netherlands, and Zurich, Switzerland, has emerged as a beacon of innovation. With a recent Series A funding of $24 million, led by Index Ventures and accompanied by Kindred Capital and notable investors including Chris Gibson, CEO of Recursion, Cradle stands at the forefront of a new era in biology and AI integration. This round of funding elevates Cradle's total investment to $33 million, a testament to its potential in reshaping the biotech landscape.

Cradle's innovative platform harnesses generative AI to revolutionize the way biologists design proteins, a cornerstone in the quest for improved human and planetary health. This technology promises to make the research and development process not only more efficient and effective but also more cost-effective. The impact of such a tool in the biotech sector cannot be overstated, as it holds the potential to drastically accelerate the creation of bio-based products.

Since its emergence from stealth mode in 2022, Cradle has demonstrated the impressive capabilities of its AI for biology technology. The platform significantly reduces the time and cost associated with the research and development of protein-based products. This efficiency is not just a theoretical claim but is backed by tangible results. Cradle's technology has been shown to double the pace of projects compared to industry standards, marking a groundbreaking advancement in protein design and optimization.

The company's success is further evidenced by its partnerships with industry leaders like Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, Novozymes, and Twist Bioscience. These collaborations cover a wide array of research and development projects, encompassing enzymes, vaccines, peptides, and antibodies. The diverse range of protein properties addressed by these projects, such as stability, expression, activity, binding affinity, and specificity, showcases the versatility and broad applicability of Cradle's technology.

Stef van Grieken, Cradle’s CEO and co-founder, elucidates the company's mission and the impact of its technology: “Biological products are one of the biggest tools we can deploy to improve health outcomes and reduce the environmental impact of human consumption. By using generative AI and machine learning to help biologists design and optimise proteins faster and more efficiently, we can help research and development teams innovate faster, spend less and ultimately be more successful in developing new products. In the last year we’ve been focused on demonstrating that our technology can deliver meaningful results and initiating partnerships with a number of true industry leaders. We’re thrilled with the progress to date and are excited to have closed our Series A, which gives us everything we need to build on this momentum, accelerate our growth and onboard more customers to our platform.”

Cradle's technology not only speeds up the design and optimization of proteins but also increases the likelihood of success in specific R&D programs. Its generative AI capabilities can find solutions to protein engineering challenges that are beyond the reach of existing tools, a critical advantage in an industry where the average biopharma company spends $22 million and 42 months on R&D for a single potential product, with only about 35% of programs advancing to clinical trials.

Sofia Dolfe, a partner at Index Ventures, highlights the transformative potential of Cradle's approach: “The application of AI in biology will be transformational, helping to solve some of the biggest health and climate challenges. The early results, from projects run by companies with some of the largest R&D budgets globally, indicate that Cradle's technology is already dramatically accelerating the pace of innovation in a field that will reshape how we produce much of what we consume. The team has continued to rapidly expand the capabilities of its platform to meet significant customer demand. It’s exciting to see how scientists leverage Cradle to design new proteins and advance this emerging field of programming biology."

Cradle's journey, punctuated by this recent funding milestone, underscores a broader narrative in the scientific community: the merging of biology and AI is not just a possibility but a reality, one that holds immense potential for the future of human health and the environment