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Reid Hoffman’s Manas AI raises $24.6M, a fraction of other AI drug discovery startups
LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and Siddhartha Mukherjee, cancer researcher and author of the book “The Emperor of All Maladies,” have co-founded an AI-powered drug discovery startup, Manas AI. The company, which will initially focus on breast cancer, prostate cancer, and lymphoma, has raised $24.6 million in seed funding from Hoffman, General Catalyst, and Greylock.
Manas AI’s capital haul pales compared with some other startups trying to use AI models to develop novel drugs. Last year, Xaira, which claimed that it was ready to start developing drugs, launched with a massive $1 billion in initial funding. Treeline Biosciences is another company that uses AI for drug discovery and raised $422 million last year, Endpts reported.
Manas AI claims it will design molecules with AI, then test them in a wet lab, Hoffman reportedly said during the presentation of his new book “Superagency.” The outfit also says it will use Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, Azure, and Microsoft’s “deep domain knowledge in AI” to develop novel medicines.
Hoffman has close ties to Microsoft, which famously acquired his earlier company, LinkedIn, in a blockbuster deal in 2016.