{"id":23876,"date":"2026-01-13T21:50:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T21:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/13\/dcvc-nvidia-back-proximas-us80-million-bet-on-ai-drug-discovery\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T21:50:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T21:50:36","slug":"dcvc-nvidia-back-proximas-us80-million-bet-on-ai-drug-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/13\/dcvc-nvidia-back-proximas-us80-million-bet-on-ai-drug-discovery\/","title":{"rendered":"DCVC, Nvidia Back Proxima\u2019s US$80 Million Bet on AI Drug Discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p><strong>AI-driven biotech startup Proxima has raised US$80 million in seed funding to accelerate the development of drugs that modulate protein-to-protein interactions.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The financing round was led by Data Collective Venture Capital, with participation from NVIDIA\u2019s (NASDAQ:NVDA) venture arm NVentures, Roivant Sciences, Braidwell, and a group of strategic and institutional investors.<\/p>\n<p>Alongside the funding, the company announced it has rebranded from VantAI to Proxima to reflect its focus on proximity-based therapeutics. <\/p>\n<p>These medicines aim to modulate interactions between proteins rather than simply switching a single protein on or off, an approach that researchers believe could open the door to treating diseases that have historically been difficult to address with conventional drugs.<\/p>\n<p>Proximity-based drugs include modalities such as molecular glues and PROTACs, which have gained attention in recent years for their potential to target so-called \u201cundruggable\u201d proteins. <\/p>\n<p>Despite their promise, progress in the field has been slowed by limited structural data and challenges in designing compounds that reliably influence protein\u2013protein interactions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cProximity-based medicines represent one of the most powerful new ways to treat disease, but progress has been constrained by a lack of structural data and accurate design tools,\u201d Proxima\u2019s co-founder and chief executive officer Zachary Carpenter said in the company\u2019s press release.<\/p>\n<p>Protein\u2013protein interactions govern nearly all biological processes, yet only a small fraction of these interactions have been structurally characterized.<\/p>\n<p>Through its NeoLink data-generation technology, Proxima is aiming to create a data foundation that would support rational drug design across a wide range of proximity-based therapeutic approaches.<\/p>\n<p>This data is then paired with Proxima\u2019s Neo series of AI models, which the company says enables end-to-end discovery and development of proximity-modulating small molecules to improve safety profiles and shorten development timelines.<\/p>\n<p>The company has already established partnerships with major pharmaceutical players, including Johnson &amp; Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY), and Blueprint Medicines, which was acquired by Sanofi (NASDAQ:SNY) last year.<\/p>\n<p>Proxima said multiple co-developed programs with partners are advancing toward the clinic, with the first expected to enter clinical trials in 2026.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div>This post appeared first on investingnews.com<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AI-driven biotech startup Proxima has raised US$80 million in seed funding to accelerate the development of drugs that modulate protein-to-protein interactions. The financing round was led by Data Collective Venture Capital, with participation from NVIDIA\u2019s (NASDAQ:NVDA) venture arm NVentures, Roivant Sciences, Braidwell, and a group of strategic and institutional investors. Alongside the funding, the company [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":23877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}