Isomorphic Labs Raises $2.1 Billion to Push AI-Designed Drugs Into Human Trials

A Landmark Raise for AI-Driven Medicine

Isomorphic Labs, the drug discovery company spun out of Alphabet's Google DeepMind, has raised $2.1 billion in its second outside funding round, marking one of the largest financings ever for an AI drug discovery company. The round was led by venture firm Thrive Capital and included participation from Alphabet, Abu Dhabi's MGX, Singapore's Temasek, and the UK's Sovereign AI fund.

From AlphaFold to the Clinic

Founded in 2021 by DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis, Isomorphic Labs has built its platform on AlphaFold, the protein structure prediction system that earned Hassabis and colleague John Jumper the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The company's flagship product, the Isomorphic Drug Design Engine (IsoDDE), predicts how potential drug compounds will interact with proteins in the body, enabling researchers to design candidate molecules computationally rather than through traditional trial-and-error laboratory screening.

The new capital will fund further development of IsoDDE and the expansion of global operations. Isomorphic already has active partnerships with pharmaceutical giants Eli Lilly and Novartis, which lends the startup a level of Big Pharma validation that is rare among its competitors in the AI drug discovery space.

A Delayed but Approaching Milestone

The fundraise comes as Isomorphic prepares for a pivotal moment: its first human clinical trials. CEO Demis Hassabis told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January that the company expects to enter the clinic by the end of 2026, a delay from an earlier target of late 2025. President Max Jaderberg has described the upcoming trials as an exciting test of efficacy for AI-designed molecules.

A Statement of Confidence

At more than triple the $600 million Series A that Thrive Capital led in March 2025, the round reflects swelling institutional confidence that protein structure-prediction technology can translate into viable medicines. The backing from sovereign wealth funds in particular signals a belief that AI-driven drug discovery is approaching a tipping point, where decades of computational biology research could finally yield approved therapies for patients suffering from cancer, rare genetic disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases.