Warp Sciences, a San Francisco startup founded by former OpenAI executive Kevin Weil, came out of stealth on Thursday, Oct. 22, with $215 million in funding at an $865 million valuation.

Why it matters: Much of the hands-on chemistry behind new drugs is outsourced to contractors in China, such as WuXi AppTec, TechCrunch reported. Warp wants to do that work in U.S. labs using AI and robots.

What Warp does

Warp is building a U.S.-based chemistry contract research organization that makes and tests the molecules drug researchers need, according to its announcement. It has no drug pipeline of its own.

Its chemists will wear cameras and sensor gloves to train robots on lab tasks, so the labs can eventually run around the clock, TechCrunch reported.

"AI has dramatically accelerated software engineering and mathematics, but it has yet to make the same impact in the physical sciences," Weil said in the release.

Who is behind it

  • Kevin Weil, CEO, was OpenAI's chief product officer and VP of science.
  • DJ Patil, COO, was the first U.S. chief data scientist at the White House.
  • Sol Reisberg led medicinal chemistry at Terremoto Biosciences.
  • Mano Paluri was a VP at Meta Superintelligence Labs.

Lightspeed led the round, with IVP, Mayfield, Lux, Premji Invest, Menlo Ventures and others joining.