Medra Secures $52 Mn in Funding, Announces Partnership with Genentech

The fresh capital is expected to support further development of Medra’s autonomous lab capabilities and strengthen partnerships in the pharmaceutical research sector.

San Francisco-based Medra, a company that develops Physical AI scientists for drug discoveries, has raised $52 million in a Series A funding round led by Human Capital with contributions from existing backers including Neo, Lux Capital, and NFDG, as well as new investors such as Catalio Capital Management, Menlo Ventures, 776, and Fusion Fund.

The company has also announced a collaboration with Genentech, a leading biopharmaceutical firm, to integrate Medra’s AI-driven robotics and data systems with Genentech’s laboratory operations to support drug discovery efforts.

The fresh capital is expected to support further development of Medra’s autonomous lab capabilities and strengthen partnerships in the pharmaceutical research sector.

Commenting on the new investment, Michelle Lee, Ph.D., CEO & Founder, Medra, said, “Pharma runs millions of experiments, but most of that data can’t be reused or fed back into AI. We’re closing that loop by tying predictions to outcomes in a continuous, self-improving cycle.”

“To accelerate drug development, we need to link predictions directly to automated execution and feed the results back into the model. This continuous loop enables drug discovery companies to run far more experiments, iterate faster, and advance therapies with a higher probability of success,” he added.

Medra’s Physical AI system is designed to independently carry out laboratory experiments while operating seamlessly with standard lab equipment.

Its technology allows researchers to use everyday language to instruct the system and creates a continuous feedback loop that links predictions, experimental execution, and outcome analysis.

Further, its companion system, Medra’s Scientific AI, enables the interpretation of experimental outcomes and assists in refining protocols, contributing to an ongoing learning and optimisation process.

As part of the partnership, Medra will integrate its technology with Genentech’s laboratory information management system (LIMS) and machine learning (ML) infrastructure.

This integration is expected to enable continuous learning by supporting in-house predictions, automated experiment execution, and the iterative optimisation of scientific workflows.

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