Anthropic and Nvidia back Basecamp Research in $140M Series C
Tech.eu John Reynolds ● Covered by 2 sources
Basecamp Research just raised $140M with Nvidia and Anthropic in the mix. The UK startup wants AI to design medicines that can reprogram cells inside the body.
Based on reporting by Tech.eu, John Reynolds — read the original for the full story.
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Basecamp Research has landed $140 million in Series C funding, a big round by Series C standards and one that puts some heavyweight AI names on the cap table. Nvidia’s venture arm, NVentures, came back. Anthropic showed up as a new backer through its Anthology Fund with Menlo Ventures. The round was led by S32, the California firm founded by Bill Maris.
The London-based startup says it uses AI and biodiversity data to design treatments for cancer, autoimmune disease and other conditions. It was founded in 2019 by doctors Glen Gowers and Oliver Vince, and its roots stretch back to their PhD work in synthetic biology and bioengineering, plus a 2019 trip to Iceland’s Vatnajökull ice cap, where they set up an off-grid DNA sequencing operation.
Basecamp says the money will go into training a new generation of AI models and pushing forward a pipeline of AI-designed therapeutics. The company’s Eden models are being applied to in vivo cell therapy, which means reprogramming a patient’s cells inside the body. Basecamp argues that current cell therapies are limited by what they can do and by a manufacturing process that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per patient.
The pitch is straightforward enough: use AI to design long, complex DNA sequences, then pair that with specialised enzymes that can deliver them precisely. The company says that should make cell therapies more customisable, more sophisticated and easier to administer. It also says the funding follows strong preclinical results across multiple disease areas, and that its pipeline is moving toward clinical development.
The investor list is broad. Alongside S32, NVentures and Anthropic’s fund, the round included Catalio, the NATO Innovation Fund, Rockefeller, European Tech Collective and the UK government’s Sovereign AI Fund, with Firebrand, River Capital King Philanthropies and Redalpine returning. Basecamp says its models are trained on what it calls the world’s largest proprietary genomic dataset, built through partnerships in more than 30 countries.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is exactly the kind of deal that says more about the market than the science. When Nvidia and Anthropic lean in, everyone starts talking about frontier medicine, but the real story is that biology still needs patient money, long timelines and a lot less demo-day theatre. The UK can clearly host serious biotech, which is nice to see for once without a press release wearing a Union Jack cape.
Read more about this at: Tech.eu
