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Kevin Weil Launches Warp Sciences With $215 Million
Former OpenAI science leader Kevin Weil launched Warp Sciences on October 22 with $215 million in funding led by Lightspeed. The startup plans to combine chemistry, AI and robotics to make and test compounds for drug researchers in U.S.-bas
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Kevin Weil, OpenAI’s former science lead, launched Warp Sciences on October 22 with $215 million to build U.S.-based chemistry labs combining expert chemists, AI and robotics. Lightspeed led the funding round, which also includes IVP, Mayfield, Lux, Premji Invest and Menlo Ventures. TechCrunch reported the financing values the startup at $865 million.
Warp starts with compounds, not drugs
Warp plans to sell chemistry services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, rather than develop medicines of its own. Its first offering is lead optimization analog synthesis: making variations of a promising molecule so researchers can compare them and decide what to test next. The work sits between a promising molecular design and a drug candidate ready for further development.
“AI has dramatically accelerated software engineering and mathematics, but it has yet to make the same impact in the physical sciences,” Weil, Warp Sciences’ co-founder and CEO, said in the company’s announcement. “Chemistry and biology move forward when you make something, test it and learn from the result.” Kevin Weil, co-founder and CEO of Warp Sciences
The company says experimental data will feed into AI models, while those models help plan later experiments and guide lab work. Warp says it has no proprietary drug pipeline and will build infrastructure for research teams that develop medicines. That distinction positions it as a service provider, not a drugmaker competing with its customers.
Chemists lead as automation grows
Warp does not describe its launch plan as a fully automated lab from day one. Experienced chemists will guide experiments as the company increases its use of AI and robotics, according to its announcement. Lightspeed says the intended progression is for robots to take on repetitive, high-volume tasks such as setting up reactions and purifying samples, leaving chemists to focus on harder problems.
The investor’s account describes a data strategy alongside the physical work: recording each experiment, including failed runs, so the information can help improve lab processes and inform what the team makes next. Warp’s stated ambition is for experimental results to improve its models and for those models to help the lab run more effectively. The company has not yet published performance results showing that this cycle has improved experiment speed or drug outcomes.
A domestic chemistry service is the bet
Warp is building a U.S. chemistry contract research organization, or CRO, for biotech and pharmaceutical customers. Weil’s company frames domestic capacity as a way to give research teams more control over where sensitive work takes place, while aiming to shorten the path from molecular design to testing. Lightspeed describes the business as an effort to bring outsourced chemistry work back to the United States.
The service will have to compete on practical measures such as turnaround time, quality and cost. Lightspeed says a typical lead-optimization cycle at a contract lab can take two to three weeks, while the chemistry stage may involve testing thousands of molecular variations. Warp has not announced customer names, prices or operating results, leaving those measures for its service to establish.
Four founders bring science and operating experience
Weil’s co-founders are DJ Patil, chief operating officer; Sol Reisberg, chief scientific officer; and Manohar Paluri, chief technology officer. The company says their experience spans healthcare, medicinal chemistry and AI, including OpenAI, Terremoto Biosciences, Meta and the White House. Weil previously served as OpenAI’s chief product officer and led its OpenAI for Science effort, according to Lightspeed.
The $215 million gives Warp capital to build its lab and begin offering chemistry services, but the launch announcement sets out a plan rather than evidence of results. The immediate test is whether chemists and automation can produce useful molecular variations at the pace and price customers need. For now, Warp’s first named service is lead optimization chemistry, with human chemists guiding an operation it intends to automate over time.