UK Sovereign AI Fund and Stripe CEO Participate in Potential Sciences' Tens-of-Millions-of-Dollars Financing
London-based startup Potential Sciences has secured a seed round in the tens of millions of dollars, with participation from the UK government's sovereign AI fund and Stripe CEO Patrick Collison. The company uses AI, machine learning, and quantum chemistry simulation to assist drug discovery; its models are based on fundamental laws of physics rather than prior experimental data, and it claims this can reduce the AI computing cost required for chemical design to 1/100 of current levels. The sovereign AI fund has also committed to providing computing power to the company; the specific amount and valuation were not disclosed.
Body
A London-based startup building AI infrastructure for scientific drug discovery has received backing from the UK government’s Sovereign AI fund and Stripe CEO Patrick Collison.
Potential Sciences leverages AI, machine learning and quantum chemistry simulations to help researchers understand how molecules behave and interact. It is pioneering a new approach, with an AI model focused on the fundamental laws of physics, rather than previous experimental data, the startup says. It says this could make the AI calculations needed to design chemicals 100 times cheaper than at present.
The government’s Sovereign AI fund today confirmed it was backing Potential Sciences, as part of a raise in the tens of millions of dollars. The Sovereign AI fund is also committing compute capacity to Potential Sciences, which was founded in November last year.
It marks the latest bet by the UK government's Sovereign AI fund, whose mission is to ensure that the UK develops, owns and scales key AI firms. Its other bets include chip startup Olix and AI startups Ineffable Intelligence and Callosum.
The seed funding round also includes backing from Twin Path Ventures, Odyssey, Portfolio Ventures, Blue Wire Capital, rule30, Nauta Capital and Lightfield Equity, as well as angel investment from Collison and other angel investors.
Potential Sciences declined to disclose exactly how much was raised or its valuation.
Potential Sciences was founded by doctor Hatem Helal, a former Graphcore executive, the chip designed acquired by SoftBank, in 2025.
Sovereign AI Investment Partner Joséphine Kant said: "I first met Hatem in Cambridge, and he immediately struck me as a formidable founder. He combines technical excellence with low ego and unapologetic ambition. He knows the science in extraordinary detail, but he’s also deliberate about bringing in people who are exceptional in areas different from his own. "Potential Sciences have the ambition to become a true frontier lab for chemistry, with the potential to fundamentally change how the field works."