Isomorphic Labs' AI-first drug bet: $600M raise, $2.9B in pharma deals, no drugs yet

Isomorphic Labs is a London-based company spun out of Google DeepMind in 2021 that uses AI models built on AlphaFold to design small-molecule drugs and license discovery programs to pharma partners.

AI-first protein design could reinvent drug discovery, and pharma giants would pay billions for access before any molecule reached clinical trials.

$600M first external round led by Thrive Capital with GV and Alphabet (announced 2025-03-31); earlier, Lilly paid $45M upfront (up to $1.7B milestones) and Novartis $37.5M upfront (up to $1.2B milestones).

Demis Hassabis launched Isomorphic Labs in 2021 under Alphabet, spinning it out of DeepMind to apply AlphaFold — the AI that predicts protein structures — to drug design. The thesis: biology is information, and a model that can read it will find drug targets and molecules faster than wet-lab screening. Isomorphic co-designed AlphaFold 3 with DeepMind, and in January 2024 it signed its first pharma deals: Eli Lilly ($45M upfront, up to $1.7B in milestones) and Novartis ($37.5M upfront, up to $1.2B), together worth nearly $3B excluding royalties.

The partnerships were validation without a product: no Isomorphic-discovered drug had reached trials, and the company's 2021 accounts showed a £2.4M loss as it hired ahead of opening a Lausanne office. In March 2025 Isomorphic raised $600M — its first external round — led by Thrive Capital with GV and Alphabet participating; Hassabis told the New York Times the company didn't need the capital but would use it to hire top research scientists. The stated goal was to bring AI-designed drugs to clinical trials.

Still scaling, unproven: as of 2025-03-31 Isomorphic had $600M in new capital, pharma partnerships worth up to ~$3B, and a goal of getting its first AI-discovered drugs into clinical trials — the bet had won funding and partners, but no clinical proof yet.

It isolates the strongest possible signal for an AI-first biotech thesis: two top pharma companies prepaying billions before any drug existed.

The case is genuinely unfinished — $600M raised, zero clinical candidates — so it documents a bet still being tested rather than a hindsight story.

It shows how a corporate spinout (Alphabet/DeepMind) used Nobel-grade science and licensing economics instead of consumer products.

The numbers are all sourced and dated: $45M/$37.5M upfront (2024-01-07), up to $2.9B milestones, $600M round (2025-03-31).

Validation can precede product: Isomorphic monetized an AI engine pharma trusted enough to prepay billions in milestones — but the licensing strategy has yet to prove a molecule.

As of 2025-03-31, Isomorphic Labs remains pre-clinical, having closed a $600M round led by Thrive Capital with GV and Alphabet, following 2024 partnerships with Eli Lilly and Novartis potentially worth nearly $3B in milestones. It continues building on AlphaFold 3, co-designed with DeepMind, and aims to bring its first AI-designed drugs to clinical trials. Founder Demis Hassabis, who shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for AlphaFold, remained CEO, and the company was hiring for London and Lausanne.