Manas AI, a company dedicated to revolutionizing drug discovery and development through the use of artificial intelligence, has successfully closed a $26 million Seed Extension funding round. This significant investment will enable the company to accelerate its groundbreaking work further. Alongside this financial milestone, Manas AI has announced the appointment of Ujjwal Singh as its new Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, bringing a wealth of experience to the leadership team.
The fundamental mission of Manas AI is to address the significant challenges and inefficiencies inherent in traditional drug development processes. By seamlessly integrating cutting-edge biomedical expertise with advanced AI capabilities, the company is forging a new path toward creating medications that are not only developed more quickly and at a lower cost but also offer greater precision in their therapeutic effects. This approach promises to reshape the landscape of pharmaceutical innovation.
The newly secured capital will be strategically deployed to advance several key areas of focus. A primary focus will be on the accelerated development of Manas AI’s foundational models for drug discovery, which are at the heart of their technological advancements. Furthermore, the funding will support the progression of the company’s existing therapeutic campaigns, bringing promising new treatments closer to reality. Manas AI also plans to expand its highly interdisciplinary team, attracting top talent from various fields. This expansion will be significantly guided by the expertise of Ujjwal Singh, who will play a crucial role in building out the company’s technological capabilities.
Ujjwal Singh brings an impressive track record of leadership and innovation to Manas AI. Most recently, he served as Chief Technology and Product Officer at Multiverse, where he played a pivotal role in driving product strategy and technological development. Before that, he held the position of Head of Workplace at Meta, demonstrating his ability to lead large-scale product initiatives. Singh’s distinguished career also includes a significant tenure at Google, where he was a driving force behind numerous product innovations. At Google, he was a Partner in the internal incubator, Area 120, a program designed to foster experimental new products. As Senior Director of Engineering, he was responsible for founding and successfully launching Google Hangouts, a widely used communication platform. Additionally, he spearheaded the engineering efforts that led to the expansion of YouTube into dedicated and highly successful platforms such as YouTube Kids, YouTube Music, and YouTube Gaming, showcasing his ability to scale and diversify primary product offerings.
This recent Seed Extension round builds upon a previous $24.6 million Seed Round, which was announced earlier this year in January and was notably led by General Catalyst and Reid Hoffman. The current seed extension round saw participation from a diverse group of investors, including The General Partnership, Wisdom Ventures, Blitzscaling Ventures, Westbound Equity Partners, Mosaic Ventures, and several individual investors, all of whom recognize the immense potential of Manas AI’s innovative approach to drug discovery.
KEY QUOTES:
“We are incredibly excited to welcome Ujjwal Singh as both a Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer. Ujjwal’s extensive AI and productization background perfectly complement the AI-native, scalable design of Manas’ vision. Ujjwal will not only make an impact on our cutting-edge AI capabilities but also as an experienced and visionary leader in the Co-Founder role.”
Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, CEO and Co-Founder of Manas AI
“Manas AI’s mission to usher in a new era of medicine—one defined by accelerated discovery and highly targeted therapies—deeply resonates with me. Together with Reid Hoffman, Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, and the rest of the remarkable leadership team, I believe we can build a truly meaningful company that harnesses and deploys the most impactful aspects of the AI revolution we are witnessing.”
Ujjwal Singh
“It is excellent to work with Ujjwal again. Ujjwal is an amazing technologist, who brings the experience of many scale AI projects to Manas’ mission to transform the drug discovery process.”
Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of Manas AI, Inflection AI, and LinkedIn
