Overview

• Manas AI, co-founded by LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman and oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee, raised $24.6 million in seed funding led by General Catalyst and Greylock Partners.
• The startup will use proprietary AI technology to accelerate drug discovery, focusing initially on breast cancer, prostate cancer, and lymphoma before expanding to autoimmune diseases and rare conditions.
• Manas AI plans to integrate AI-driven molecular design with wet lab testing to identify and develop promising drug candidates more efficiently.
• The company has partnered with Microsoft to leverage its Azure cloud computing platform and AI expertise to support its drug discovery efforts.
• Hoffman and Mukherjee emphasize that the technology is meant to empower researchers, combining advanced AI with the expertise of leading scientists to transform drug development timelines and costs.