Zurich-based Cradle raises €69.5 million to develop protein engineering with generative AI | EU-Startups

Cradle, a Swiss platform for AI-powered protein engineering, has secured €69.5 million in a Series B funding round led by IVP, with participation from previous investors Index Ventures and Kindred Capital.

This investment brings Cradle’s total funding to over €95.3 million, enabling the company to scale operations and accelerate adoption of its generative AI platform for protein research and development.

Cradle’s technology addresses challenges in engineering proteins, which are crucial to producing pharmaceuticals, eco-friendly pesticides, animal-free foods, and other sustainable solutions. According to Cradle, traditional protein engineering methods are slow, costly, and unreliable, often requiring years of research and significant resources with no guarantee of success. Cradle’s AI platform aims to transforms this process by reducing experimental cycles, enabling faster, more cost-effective discovery and development of improved proteins.

CEO and co-founder Stef van Grieken shared Cradle’s mission:“Cradle was founded on the belief that we could solve global planetary and human health challenges by using generative AI to rapidly accelerate the development of bio-based products. Over the past two years, our own research and our collaborations with partners have proven that this technology can deliver remarkable results across a range of applications, from developing new vaccines and sustainable chemicals, to novel diagnostics and agricultural crop protection. Our goal is now to put Cradle’s software into the hands of a million scientists and empower them to build great products. Our Series B will make this next phase of growth possible and we’re delighted to have the backing of IVP to help us scale.”

The platform has demonstrated its impact across industries including therapeutics, diagnostics, food, chemicals, and agriculture, with notable clients such as Novo Nordisk, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, Novonesis and Grifols.

Cradle’s technology also ensures data security and intellectual property protection for its customers, allowing organisations to retain full control of engineered proteins. Its adaptable architecture supports applications in pharmaceuticals and industrial use cases, including enzymes, antibodies, vaccines, peptides, and therapeutic proteins.

Alex Lim, General Partner at IVP, expressed optimism about Cradle’s future: “Biology is one of the domains where generative AI can have the biggest positive impact and Cradle is leading the way with its pioneering approach to protein design as a digital service. Given the costs associated with drug discovery or similar fields of research, any efficiencies at the R&D stage will translate to both major financial returns for customers and significant real-world benefits for humanity. With impressive results delivered by Cradle’s platform just two years after launch, we see a bright future ahead for one of Europe’s – and the world’s – most consequential AI companies.”

The Series B funding will enable Cradle to expand its in-house wet lab, generating additional datasets to train its models for more complex challenges. The company will also grow its engineering team to advance machine learning capabilities and support a broader range of tasks.