Latent Labs, a biotechnology startup founded by a DeepMind alumnus, has emerged from stealth mode to announce the launch of its web-based AI model, LatentX, aimed at revolutionizing protein design. Just under six months before this release, the company announced a $50 million capital raise. This remarkable investment places them as leading player in the burgeoning field of programming biology.
LatentX is excited to have officially launched, which represents a big step toward democratizing access to protein design and discovery. Now, you can take this powerful tool for a spin—for free! This model can be characterized as an AI foundational model purposefully built for drug discovery. Latent Labs intends to introduce a commercial licensing model later on. This will allow outside organizations to eventually tap into its more robust functionalities and capabilities as they are built out.
Marina Temkin, a venture capital and startups reporter at TechCrunch, highlighted the significance of such developments in the biotech sector. “Not every company is in a position to build their own AI models, to have their own AI infrastructure, and to have their own AI teams,” she noted.
Latent Labs’ approach is more collaborative than other well-known AI-driven drug discovery startups such as Xaira and Recursion. These companies have launched with staggering amounts of funding. Xaira recently raised $1 billion, and Isomorphic Labs raised $600 million from Thrive. In comparison, Latent Labs’ services offer a budget-friendly alternative for smaller agencies.
LatentX builds on what’s already available, including AlphaFold, a Google created technology that enables users to visualize existing protein structures. It doesn’t permit the production of newly emerging, neo-adaptive proteins. Latent Labs’ model complements and fills an underserved niche in the market. It provides research users with tools to invent the next generation of protein design.
The competitive landscape includes significant players such as EvolutionaryScale. They’ve raised $142 million and counting and earned support from tech titans Amazon and Nvidia. Chai Discovery is entering the ring to do their part by offering open-sourced AI foundational models for drug discovery. Overall, this decision underscores the growing need for AI-driven, user-friendly tools within the biotechnology space.
Latent Labs has been quickly building out its platform, which is in the early development phase. Later, it plans to roll out additional features to expand what it has to offer further and eventually transition to a paid subscription model for access to premium capabilities. This flexible business approach shows a keen awareness of the varied stakeholders that make up the complex world of the biotechnology ecosystem.
