The startup behind a platform for developing new materials to tackle global sustainability and clean energy challenges has secured more than $100m (£74m) in Series A funding.
CuspAI leverages generative AI, deep learning and molecular simulation to streamline the material design process. The platform functions like a search engine for materials, allowing users to request specific properties for new materials on-demand.
This enables the rapid generation and evaluation of a vast number of novel structures, ultimately leading to the discovery of materials with precise functionalities.
Following a £24m seed round in summer 2024 from leading European and US venture funds, it has now won backing from further high-profile investors and tech firms as well as angels.
The latest round was co-led by US fund New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Temasek, with participation from NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm), Samsung Ventures, Hyundai Motor Group, and returning investors.
Other firms participating include Basis Set Ventures, FJ Labs, Giant Ventures, LocalGlobe, Northzone, Prosus Ventures, Tiferes Ventures and Touring Capital.
Angel investors include Durk Kingma (OpenAI co-founder), Zoubin Ghahramani (Google VP research), Arash Ferdowsi (founder of Dropbox), Thomas Wolf (founder of Hugging Face) and Victor Riparbelli (founder and CEO of Synthesia).
CuspAI was founded by Professor Max Welling, a renowned pioneer in AI and former Distinguished Scientist and VP at Microsoft Research and Qualcomm, and Professor at the University of Amsterdam; and Dr Chad Edwards, a chemist who has spent his career in DeepTech commercialisation including at Google and BASF and most recently quantum computing leader Quantinuum.
Geoffrey Hinton, known as the ‘Godfather of AI’, serves as a board advisor.
“Humanity will face many challenges in the coming decade. Some will be caused by AI while others can be solved by AI,” Hinton said last year.
“I’ve been very impressed by CuspAI and its mission to accelerate the design process of new materials using AI to curb one of humanity’s most urgent challenges – climate change.”
The firm, which partnered with Meta last year with a view to furthering its open science contributions to discover new materials to address climate change, has also forged multi-sector partnerships spanning automotive, semiconductors and water purification.
It has now announced a collaboration with Hyundai to work on sustainable energy applications.
Lila Tretikov, partner and head of AI strategy at NEA and former deputy CTO at Microsoft, will join the CuspAI board. Further additions to the board include Martin van den Brink, former president and CTO of ASML, a key architect of Europe’s semiconductor leadership; and Lord Browne, former BP CEO, chair of the Francis Crick Institute, and current chair of the UK Government’s Council for Science and Technology.
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