Somite raises over $47M Series A to revolutionize cell therapy with foundation models
Somite builds foundation models for human stem cells. We’ve just raised over $47M in Series A funding led by Khosla Ventures to accelerate development of DeltaStem, our foundation model to produce any cell type for any person.
The development of cell therapies has historically been hindered by decade-long timelines, prohibitive costs, and extensive trial-and-error processes. This has limited the ability to quickly deliver transformative treatments for diseases ranging from metabolic disorders like type 1 diabetes to muscular diseases and blood disorders.
At Somite, we’re building foundation models for human stem cells to fundamentally transform how we develop novel cell therapies. Our proprietary capsule technology allows us to generate data at an unprecedented scale: 1,000 times more efficiently than current state-of-the-art methods. These proprietary data are used to train our DeltaStem foundation model, accelerating the discovery of new cell differentiation protocols and optimizing them for purity, functionality, and scalability.
This funding represents what we believe will lead to an AlphaFold moment for developmental biology, where advancements in AI transform our understanding of cell differentiation from a costly guessing game into a compute-bound engineering discipline. Our approach doesn’t just make the development of cell therapies faster and cheaper—it enables entirely new therapeutic possibilities by reliably producing cell types previously beyond reach. This opens the door to creating a foundry of human spare parts, enabling cures for a wide range of diseases.
Somite was founded and is led by a team of AI entrepreneurs and developmental biologists: Dr. Micha Breakstone, a repeat AI entrepreneur whose previous company, Chorus.ai, was acquired for $575 million, Dr. Jonathan Rosenfeld, leader of the Fundamental AI Group at MIT, and a distinguished group of scientific co-founders:
- Prof. Olivier Pourquié, member of the National Academies of Science and Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School
- Prof. Allon Klein, James Prize recipient, Harvard Medical School
- Prof. Jay Shendure, member of the National Academy of Sciences, University of Washington
- Prof. Cliff Tabin, Chair of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, member of the National Academy of Sciences
Our Series A was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from SciFi VC, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Fusion Fund, Ajinomoto Group Ventures, Pitango HealthTech, TechAviv, Harpoon Ventures, along with angel investors such as Dr. R. Martin Chavez (former Chairman of Recursion), and Fidji Simo (outgoing CEO of Instacart and incoming CEO of Applications at OpenAI). This funding will enable us to accelerate our lead therapeutic programs—including beta cells for type 1 diabetes, cartilage for orthopedics, and satellite cells for Duchenne muscular dystrophy—and further enhance our DeltaStem platform’s capabilities.
We look forward to collaborating with strategic partners passionate about leveraging AI for a new age in human regeneration and repair. If you are interested in learning more, please reach out: hello@somite.ai.
Together, let’s redefine the future of regenerative medicine.