{"schema":"postcutoff/event@1","as_of":"2026-11-13T13:49:00+01:00","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-05-12-isomorphic-labs-series-b/","md":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-05-12-isomorphic-labs-series-b/index.md","disclosure":{"written_by":"AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code)","editor":"human editor","policy":"https://postcutoff.com/about/"},"license":null,"id":"2026-05-12-isomorphic-labs-series-b","date":"2026-05-12","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Isomorphic Labs raises $2.1B Series B","deck":"First human trials of its AI-designed drugs slip to end-2026","takeaway":"On 12 May 2026 Alphabet's DeepMind spin-off Isomorphic Labs announced a $2.1B Series B led by Thrive Capital.","category":"business","category_label":"Business","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":[{"n":1,"title":"Isomorphic Labs: Series B investment round announcement","url":"https://www.isomorphiclabs.com/articles/isomorphic-labs-announces-series-b-investment-round","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"isomorphiclabs.com"},{"n":2,"title":"PR Newswire: Isomorphic Labs secures $2.1B to scale its AI drug design engine","url":"https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/isomorphic-labs-secures-2-1-billion-funding-to-scale-its-ai-drug-design-engine-302769674.html","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"prnewswire.com"},{"n":3,"title":"Fierce Biotech: Isomorphic Labs bags $2.1B Series B","url":"https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/alphabets-ai-biotech-isomorphic-labs-bags-21b-series-b-fuel-next-gen-drug-design-model","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"fiercebiotech.com"},{"n":4,"title":"Yahoo Finance: Google-backed AI drug discovery firm pushes first trials to end-2026 (Jan 2026)","url":"https://finance.yahoo.com/news/google-backed-ai-drug-discovery-195423147.html","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"finance.yahoo.com"},{"n":5,"title":"Fortune: Isomorphic Labs nears first human trials (Jul 2025)","url":"https://www.fortune.com/2025/07/06/deepmind-isomorphic-labs-cure-all-diseases-ai-now-first-human-trials","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"fortune.com"},{"n":6,"title":"Bloomberg: Alphabet's Isomorphic Labs in funding talks for at least $40 billion value (Oct 8, 2026)","url":"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-08/alphabet-s-isomorphic-labs-in-funding-talks-for-at-least-40-billion-value","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"bloomberg.com"},{"n":7,"title":"Yahoo Finance (Bloomberg): Alphabet's Isomorphic Labs in funding talks for at least $40 billion value","url":"https://finance.yahoo.com/healthcare/articles/alphabet-isomorphic-labs-funding-talks-040000989.html","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"finance.yahoo.com"}],"official":2,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-10-08","orgs":["Isomorphic Labs","Alphabet","Thrive Capital"],"title":"Isomorphic Labs raises $2.1B Series B; first human trials of its AI-designed drugs slip to end-2026","summary":"On 12 May 2026 Alphabet's DeepMind spin-off Isomorphic Labs announced a $2.1B Series B led by Thrive Capital. The money is for its IsoDDE drug-design engine and its in-house pipeline. Earlier, at Davos in January 2026, Demis Hassabis had moved the target for first clinical trials of Isomorphic-designed drugs from end-2025 to end-2026. No first dosing had been publicly reported by late September 2026.","key_facts":["Series B $2.1B led by Thrive Capital; Alphabet and GV participated; new investors MGX, Temasek, CapitalG and the UK Sovereign AI Fund","Follows a $600M first external round (2025, also led by Thrive)","Funds to develop IsoDDE, hire across London, Cambridge (MA) and Lausanne, and advance an in-house pipeline (oncology focus reported)","Partnered small-molecule discovery deals with Eli Lilly and Novartis","Jan 2026 (Davos): Hassabis said Isomorphic now 'expects to have its first clinical trials by the end of 2026', after earlier forecasting AI-designed drugs in trials by end-2025","Hassabis: the round is 'a massive vote of confidence ... in our AI-first drug design approach'","Oct 8, 2026: Bloomberg reported Isomorphic is in early talks to raise new money at a valuation of at least $40B and possibly up to $50B, five months after the $2.1B Series B; the financing had not closed (Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance)"],"key_numbers":[],"tags":["funding","drug-discovery","ai-for-science","isodde","clinical-trials"],"science":null,"body_md":"## What happened\n\nIsomorphic Labs raised one of the largest private rounds ever for an AI drug-discovery company, three months after unveiling IsoDDE. The clinical milestone keeps slipping, though. First-in-human trials were promised for 2025, then moved to end-2026.\n\n## Why it matters\n\nInvestors are betting heavily on AlphaFold's commercial successor. The real test is whether Isomorphic's molecules reach patients and work, and that has not happened yet. Watch for an IND filing or first dosing by the end of 2026.","disputed":[],"related":[{"id":"2026-10-07-virtual-biology-initiative-1-8b-doe-nih-deepmind-meta","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-07-virtual-biology-initiative-1-8b-doe-nih-deepmind-meta/","date":"2026-10-07","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Biohub's Virtual Biology Initiative grows to $1.8B","deck":"DOE, NIH, Google DeepMind, Isomorphic Labs and Meta join the push for open data to build AI 'virtual cells'","takeaway":"Virtual-cell models need far more standardized perturbation data than exists.","category":"science","category_label":"Science & math","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":2,"official":1,"filed":"2026-10-08","updated":"2026-10-08","orgs":["Biohub","US Department of Energy","National Institutes of Health","Google DeepMind","Isomorphic Labs","Meta"]},{"id":"2026-08-05-hassabis-steps-aside-deepmind","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-08-05-hassabis-steps-aside-deepmind/","date":"2026-08-05","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Demis Hassabis steps aside as Google DeepMind CEO","deck":"Koray Kavukcuoglu takes over, Jeff Dean leaves","takeaway":"The head of the lab that produced AlphaGo, AlphaFold and Gemini stepped back from running it during the most competitive stretch of the frontier race.","category":"business","category_label":"Business","importance":4,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":10,"official":4,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-10-10","orgs":["Google DeepMind","Google","Alphabet"]},{"id":"2026-07-29-deepmind-breaks-up-alphafold-team","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-07-29-deepmind-breaks-up-alphafold-team/","date":"2026-07-29","date_precision":"day","short_title":"FT: Google DeepMind has broken up its Nobel-winning AlphaFold team","deck":"Jumper, Adler and Pritzel now at Anthropic","takeaway":"It signals that DeepMind is moving from single-problem \"grand challenge\" teams to general Gemini-based AI-scientist systems.","category":"business","category_label":"Business","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":7,"official":1,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-09-29","orgs":["Google DeepMind","Anthropic"]},{"id":"2026-02-10-isomorphic-isodde","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-02-10-isomorphic-isodde/","date":"2026-02-10","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Isomorphic Labs unveils IsoDDE drug-discovery engine, hailed as 'an AlphaFold 4'","deck":"But proprietary","takeaway":"Shows AI structural biology continuing to advance fast, but also a shift from DeepMind's open-science AlphaFold tradition toward proprietary commercial models.","category":"science","category_label":"Science & math","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"pending","labels":["Event confirmed","Awaiting review"]},"sources":2,"official":0,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-09-29","orgs":["Isomorphic Labs","Google DeepMind"]},{"id":"2024-05-08-alphafold-3","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2024-05-08-alphafold-3/","date":"2024-05-08","date_precision":"day","short_title":"AlphaFold 3 predicts structures and interactions of all life's molecules","deck":null,"takeaway":"Moved AI structural biology from single proteins to the molecular interactions that matter for medicine.","category":"science","category_label":"Science & math","importance":4,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Result confirmed"]},"sources":3,"official":3,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-09-29","orgs":["Google DeepMind","Isomorphic Labs"]}],"people":[{"id":"demis-hassabis","name":"Demis Hassabis","url":"https://postcutoff.com/person/demis-hassabis/"}],"posts":[],"videos":[],"models":[],"changes":[{"date":"2026-10-08","type":"edit","text":"Added Bloomberg's Oct 8 report of talks at a $40–50B valuation"},{"date":"2026-09-29","type":"filed","text":"Created"}],"provenance":{"agents":[{"model":"Claude Opus 5.5","maker":"Anthropic","tool":"Claude Code"}],"filed":"2026-09-29","run":null,"sources_read":null,"updated":"2026-10-08","human_review":null,"version":{"date":"2026-10-08"}},"gaps":[{"model_id":"gpt-6-astra","name":"GPT-6 Astra","cutoff":"2026-04","days_after":12,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"claude-opus-5-5","name":"Claude Opus 5.5","cutoff":"2026-06","days_after":null,"in_training_data":true},{"model_id":"gemini-4-hydrogen","name":"Gemini 4 Hydrogen","cutoff":"2026-03","days_after":42,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"grok-4-7","name":"Grok 4.7","cutoff":"2026-05","days_after":null,"in_training_data":true}],"short_url":null}