BOSTON, Massachusetts - Somite AI, a TechBio company leveraging foundation models and proprietary AI to accelerate human cell therapy development, closed its Series A funding round, raising more than $47 million. The round was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Max Levchin's SciFi Ventures, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Fusion Fund, Ajinomoto, Pitango HealthTech, TechAviv, Harpoon Ventures, along with angel investors such as Dr. R. Martin Chavez (former Chairman of Recursion), and Fidji Simo (Board Member at OpenAI).

Somite AI is building DeltaStem, a platform and foundation model designed to revolutionize the production of human cells. This funding positions Somite AI to accelerate key therapeutic programs, including beta cells for Type 1 Diabetes, articular cartilage for orthopedic applications, satellite cells for muscular diseases, and hematopoietic cells for blood disorders, and further develop the capabilities of its DeltaStem platform.

"We're building the foundation model for the human cell," said Dr. Micha Breakstone, Founder and CEO of Somite AI. "By generating the world's largest cell signaling dataset at 1000x the efficiency of current methods, we're training DeltaStem to deliver protocols with unmatched purity, scalability, and reliability. We are rapidly driving towards an AlphaFold moment for developmental biology, enabling the scalable production of any cell, for anyone."

Somite AI's proprietary capsule technology generates cell state transition data at an unprecedented scale, achieving efficiency 1000x greater than existing methodologies. This data feeds into the DeltaStem foundation model, significantly accelerating and optimizing the development of novel cell differentiation protocols.

"Traditional cell therapies are expensive, slow to develop, and unpredictable. AI can systematically solve these challenges," said Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures. "Somite AI's foundation models, once fully developed and validated, will not only create value for their own pipeline but have the potential to reshape the entire field of human cell therapy."

Somite AI was co-founded by Dr. Micha Breakstone, a seasoned AI entrepreneur (Chorus.ai, acquired for $575 million), and Dr. Jonathan Rosenfeld, Head of the Fundamental AI Group at MIT, alongside prominent scientific co-founders:

• Prof. Olivier Pourquié, member of the National Academies of Science and Medicine, Harvard Medical School
• Prof. Allon Klein, James Prize recipient, Harvard Medical School
• Prof. Jay Shendure, member of the National Academy of Sciences, University of Washington
• Prof. Cliff Tabin, Chair of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, member of the National Academy of Sciences

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About the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was founded in 2015 to help solve some of society's toughest challenges - from eradicating disease and improving education, to addressing the needs of our communities. Through collaboration, providing resources and building technology, our mission is to help build a more inclusive, just and healthy future for everyone. For more information, please visit chanzuckerberg.com.