Formation Bio, a tech-driven and AI-native pharma company has raised $372M Series D funding led by a16z with significant participation from Sanofi. Current investors also joined the round, including Sequoia, Thrive, Emerson Collective, and Lachy Groom, along with new investors, such as SV Angel Growth and FPV Ventures. This round reflects a material step up from the company’s Series C valuation. As part of the financing, Scott Kupor, Managing Partner at a16z and Alfred Lin, Partner at Sequoia will join Formation Bio’s Board of Directors alongside existing board director Michael Moritz, Sr. Advisor to Sequoia Heritage and board observer Kareem Zaki, Partner at Thrive Capital.
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The company plans to allocate the new capital towards two primary objectives: acquiring and in-licensing candidate drugs and expanding their AI capabilities. Formation Bio plans to deploy this new capital to continue acquiring and in-licensing clinical stage assets from biotech and pharma partners.
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“We are thrilled to partner with the Formation Bio team on their journey to build an AI-enabled pharma company,” said Scott Kupor, Managing Partner at a16z. “Pharma represents one of the biggest industries in the world, and there is immense potential to make the drug development process more efficient. We’ve been impressed by the team and culture that the co-founders, Ben and Linhao, have built, one that brings together the best of pharma, tech, and AI to ultimately make an enduring impact for patients.”
“At Sanofi, we’re all in on AI,” said Paul Hudson, CEO at Sanofi. “And we are proud to partner with and invest in Formation Bio, whose AI-driven drug development vision and capabilities will help lead our industry forward in the shared ambition to accelerate and improve how we bring more new medicines to patients.”
“We are in the early stages of AI driving significant efficiencies in pharma and biotech, and Formation Bio is well-positioned to lead this transformation,” said Alfred Lin, Partner at Sequoia. “Ben and his team bring a unique mix of tech, pharma, and AI expertise, along with a track record in licensing high-quality drugs and executing clinical trials. We are proud to partner with them as they push the industry forward.”
About Formation Bio
Founded 2023, Formation Bio is a tech-driven pharmaceutical company differentiated by radically more efficient drug development. Formation Bio has built a technology platform that optimizes critical aspects of clinical drug development, enabling more efficient trial design, faster trial completion, and higher quality trial data. The company acquires clinical-stage drugs from pharmaceutical and biotech companies with the goal to develop them faster in order to accelerate access to new treatments for patients, and to unlock greater value per program.
