Converge Bio, based in Tel Aviv, is a generative AI platform for accelerated drug discovery and development. Today the company announced it has raised $5.5 million in seed funding, led by TLV Partners.
Converge Bio’s platform uses large language models (LLMs) trained on biological and chemical data (DNA, RNA, protein sequences, and small molecules) to help biotech and pharmaceutical companies discover and develop better-performing drugs in less time.
The problem solved
Developing new medications and biological products is a complex, lengthy, and costly endeavour. On average, bringing a new drug to market takes about 10 years and requires an investment of approximately $1 billion. The process is fraught with risk — 90% of candidates fail during clinical trials after significant investments have been made.
Generative AI is the answer to saving money and time. Generative AI has emerged as a powerful tool for drug discovery and development, with dozens of AI-discovered drugs currently in clinical trials.
“Biological languages, like DNA and RNA, aren’t just random sequences — they have intricate structures and rules, similar to the grammar and syntax of spoken languages,” said Dov Gertz, co-founder and CEO of Converge Bio. “Just like how ChatGPT can instantly generate a string of words to answer a question, a model trained on biological data can help rapidly design optimized mRNA sequences for vaccines, cutting months or years from the process.“
About Converge Bio
Converge Bio was founded in 2024. CEO Dov Gertz holds a master’s in bioinformatics from Tel Aviv University, where he developed a machine learning pipeline to find new types of CRISPR systems used for gene editing. His research resulted in a scientific publication with Nobel laureate professor Jennifer Doudna.
CTO Oded Kalev is an ML expert who previously managed an R&D Group of 20 engineers and ML experts at the cyber security company Perception Point. As an early adopter of LLMs, Oded applied these technologies during the COVID lockdowns to analyze RNA sequences of the virus, achieving state-of-the-art results in COVID variant clustering using his own GPU at home.
Chief Scientific Officer Iddo Weiner, formerly VP of research at BiomX, completed his PhD in engineering and biology in just two and a half years with ten peer-reviewed papers.
based on the press release of the company. Selected as relevant/shortened/lectured by VonNaftali. Pic generated by AI. Symbolic.