Atlas Bio raises $12.5M to simulate drug trials using AI

Swiss biotech startup Atlas Bio has emerged from stealth with $12.5 million in total funding to develop an AI foundation model for in silico clinical trials. The funding includes a $10 million seed round led by Creandum, following a $2.5 million pre-seed round led by First Momentum Ventures and LEA Partners.

The company aims to address the high failure rate in Phase II clinical trials, where approximately 70% of drug candidates fail to meet their intended objectives. Atlas Bio’s platform uses an AI model trained on roughly 2 million RNA readouts from human tissue to simulate how drugs behave in virtual patient cohorts. This approach seeks to identify efficacy and safety signals before expensive human trials begin, potentially replacing or augmenting animal testing and traditional Phase II designs.

Founded by Simon Romanski, a former autonomous vehicle engineer, and CTO Sebastian Bayer, the Basel-based company intends to use the capital to expand its scientific and commercial teams and scale its platform through 2026.