Proximal Ventures closes $27.5M debut fund for AI drug dev
Original: Proximal Ventures raises debut fund to back startups bringing AI to drug development
Why This Matters
AI-driven pharma services could redirect billions in outsourced drug development spend to startups.
Proximal Ventures, led by former SignalFire principal Sahir Raoof, closed a $27.5M debut fund targeting pre-seed and seed startups applying AI to pharmaceutical services and drug development infrastructure.
Sahir Raoof, a former SignalFire principal with operating stints at Iterative Health and Flatiron Health, has closed a $27.5 million debut fund under the Proximal Ventures banner. The firm targets pre-seed and seed-stage startups—writing checks of $500K to $1.5M—that apply AI to the sprawling services layer surrounding drug development: compound synthesis, manufacturing scale-up, and clinical trial data analysis.
The thesis rests on a shift Raoof sees underway in pharma's buying behavior. 'For a long time, the assumption was that pharma is not a great buyer of software, but a really good buyer of services,' he told TechCrunch. AI, he argues, lets startups undercut traditional contract service providers on both cost and speed.
Seven portfolio companies are already backed, including ChronicleBio—co-founded by former OpenAI executive Fidji Simo—which uses AI to analyze biological and medical data for chronic disease research. LPs include SignalFire, Kleiner Perkins, Bertelsmann Healthcare Investments, and Dimension Capital co-founders Nan Li and Zavain Dar. Amy Abernethy, former FDA principal deputy commissioner and ex-Flatiron Health CMO, also invested, citing Raoof's ability to map industry bottlenecks.