Government AI fund backs British start-up that could make designing medicines 100 times cheaper

A British start-up that wants to make designing new medicines faster and far cheaper has won backing from the government's Sovereign AI fund. Potential Sciences announced an eight-figure funding round on Thursday, with Sovereign AI among its investors and the company also being given time on the UK's national supercomputers, including Isambard-AI in Bristol.

The company's idea is simple to state but hard to do: instead of training AI only on data from slow and costly laboratory experiments, it builds models grounded in the fundamental laws of physics. It says this could make the calculations needed to design new chemicals around 100 times cheaper than they are now.

Solving chemistry's "data bottleneck"

AI is already being used to search for new medicines for diseases such as cancer and Parkinson's. But according to the government, progress has been held back because the models depend on experimental data that takes years and a great deal of money to collect.

Hatem Helal, the founder and chief executive of Potential Sciences, said: "AI for drug discovery has learned almost everything the existing experimental record can teach it. The next leap needs new data, and the laws of physics can supply it, as long as your software can use modern hardware."

"We rebuilt quantum chemistry for GPUs so that gold-standard accuracy is affordable at the scale AI needs," he added. "When your code is 100 times more efficient, a seed round buys what used to take a dedicated datacenter."

The AI Minister, Kanishka Narayan, said the company was "grasping an opportunity Britain is uniquely well-placed to capitalise on". Solving the data problem, he said, "could allow researchers to explore new treatments for diseases that are currently deemed too rare or expensive to focus on. This is AI at its best - pushing the boundaries of innovation, ultimately to improve people's lives."

Big names among the backers

Alongside Sovereign AI, the round includes Twin Path Ventures, Odyssey, Portfolio Ventures, Blue Wire Capital, rule30, Nauta Capital and Lightfield Equity. Angel investors include Patrick Collison, co-founder of the payments company Stripe, and Chris Gibson, co-founder and former chief executive of the drug discovery firm Recursion.

Lord Vallance, chair of the Prime Minister's AI Taskforce, said: "Drug discovery is an expensive and uncertain business and we still don't have effective treatments and cures for many diseases. Potential Sciences has proposed an elegant solution: turning to the fundamentals of quantum science and AI. That could be a gamechanger."

The Science Minister, Chris McDonald, a former chemical engineer, said the investment "plays into everything that's good about British innovation".

What Sovereign AI does

Sovereign AI is the government's venture fund for early-stage AI companies, set up to help them grow and stay in Britain. Typical investments are between £1m and £10m, and every company it backs must have a meaningful presence in the UK, through its founders, leadership, headquarters or a large share of its staff.

Last week's Budget confirmed a further £140m for the programme: £60m for the fund's investments and £80m for its research and development procurement scheme. The Chancellor also announced that Sovereign AI would expand into physical and industrial AI, covering robotics, autonomous systems and advanced manufacturing.

That last area is one where Birmingham has real strengths, from the advanced manufacturing firms of the city and its surroundings to the robotics and engineering research at its universities, so it is a fund worth watching for local start-ups.