Proximal Ventures Fund to Allocate $27.5 Million for AI Development in Pharmaceuticals
The Proximal Ventures fund has raised $27.5 million and will invest it in startups using AI for drug development and pharmaceutical services.
Proximal Ventures founder Sahir Rauf assembled the firm’s first fund amid a challenging market for first-time fund managers raising capital. Previously, he worked as an investor at SignalFire, held executive positions at two medical startups, and was responsible for business development at Iterative Health and Flatiron Health.
The fund plans to invest in companies at the pre-seed and seed stages. The size of a single investment will range from $500,000 to $1.5 million. Proximal Ventures has already backed six startups, including ChronicleBio, co-founded by former OpenAI executive Fiji Simo. The company uses AI to analyze biological and medical data to study chronic diseases and identify potential treatment methods.
Rauf believes AI can automate a significant portion of tasks currently outsourced by pharmaceutical companies to specialized contractors. This includes synthesizing molecular compounds, scaling drug production, and analyzing clinical trial data. In his estimation, startups will be able to provide such services more cheaply and quickly, gaining access to the pharmaceutical industry’s expenditures.
Among the fund’s investors are SignalFire, Kleiner Perkins, Bertelsmann Healthcare Investments, as well as Dimension Capital co-founders Nan Li and Zavain Dar. The fund also includes Amy Abernethy, co-founder of Highlander Health and former deputy commissioner of the FDA. She highlighted Rauf’s experience in building business relationships and identifying bottlenecks in the healthcare system.
