Astromech raises $20M to develop AI for evolutionary biology forecasting

Astromech, an evolutionary biology AI startup, has secured $20 million in new funding, bringing its total capital raised to $60 million and its valuation to $3.8 billion. The funding round was led by Bob Nelsen of ARCH Venture Partners, with participation from PEAK6, NeoGenesis Capital, Builders VC, and CAZ Investments.

Co-founded by entrepreneur Ben Lamm and Harvard geneticist George Church, the company spun out of Colossal Biosciences. Astromech is developing predictive models designed to forecast how living systems will change over time. By analyzing genomic, evolutionary, and functional data, the platform aims to anticipate biological trajectories such as genetic bottlenecks, disease progression, drug resistance, and species responses to environmental shifts.

Co-founder Ben Lamm compared the company’s approach to weather forecasting, noting that the system uses historical patterns and current conditions to predict future biological events. The company intends to use the new capital to expand its research team, increase the diversity of species in its genomic datasets, and scale its training infrastructure.