Artificial intelligence (AI) biotech startup Proxima has raised US$80 million in seed funding to accelerate the development of drugs that modulate protein-to-protein interactions.
The financing round was led by Data Collective Venture Capital (DCVC), with participation from NVIDIA’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) venture arm, as well as Roivant Sciences (NASDAQ:ROIV), Braidwell and other strategic and institutional investors.
Alongside the funding, the company announced in a Tuesday (January 13) press release that it has rebranded from VantAI to Proxima to reflect its focus on proximity-based therapeutics. These medicines aim to modulate interactions between proteins rather than simply switching a single protein on or off, an approach that researchers believe could open the door to treating diseases that have historically been difficult to address with conventional drugs.
Proximity-based drugs include modalities such as molecular glues and PROTACs, which have gained attention in recent years for their potential to target so-called “undruggable” proteins.
Despite their promise, progress in the field has been slowed by limited structural data and challenges in designing compounds that reliably influence protein-protein interactions.
“Proximity-based medicines represent one of the most powerful new ways to treat disease, but progress has been constrained by a lack of structural data and accurate design tools,” said Zachary Carpenter, Proxima’s co-founder and CEO. He emphasized the firm’s goal of making this type of therapy more widely accessible for those in need.
Protein-protein interactions govern nearly all biological processes, yet only a small fraction of these interactions have been structurally characterized. Through its NeoLink data-generation technology, Proxima is aiming to create a data foundation that would support rational drug design across a wide range of proximity-based therapeutic approaches.
This data is then paired with Proxima’s Neo series of AI models, which enable end-to-end discovery and development of proximity-modulating small molecules to improve safety profiles and shorten development timelines.
Proxima has already established partnerships with major pharmal players, including Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) and Blueprint Medicines, which was acquired by Sanofi (NASDAQ:SNY) last year.
According to the company, multiple co-developed programs with partners are advancing toward the clinic, with the first expected to enter clinical trials in 2026.
Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.