Zephyr AI announces $111m Series A to advance AI in precision medicine

Zephyr AI, Inc., a pioneering healthcare technology company committed to enhancing precision medicine through fast and explainable Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions, has successfully closed a $111 million Series A funding round. This significant financial boost was supported by a group of prestigious investors including Revolution Growth, Eli Lilly & Company, Jeff Skoll, and EPIQ Capital Group, among others. Zephyr AI is set on revolutionizing data federation tools and machine learning algorithms specifically in the fields of oncology and cardiometabolic disease, addressing some of the most pressing health challenges of our time.

Grant Verstandig, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Zephyr AI, highlighted the urgency of the mission, stating, “The US has the highest rate of avoidable cancer and cardiometabolic-related deaths among any high-income country. We must do better.” Leveraging AI, Zephyr AI aims to extract novel insights for patient stratification and response predictions and improve the federation of real-world data. With a world-class team and the backing of its investors, Zephyr AI is deploying one of the largest clinicogenomic datasets available, encompassing an unprecedented breadth across disease states and data partners. This initiative is a critical step towards the company’s goal of democratizing precision medicine and enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of clinical trials.

Dr. Justin Stebbing, Chairman of Zephyr AI’s Scientific and Medical Advisory Board, emphasized the company’s technological edge, particularly its ability to navigate the complexities of real-world patient data and its use of recent breakthroughs in representation learning to understand the biological context of its predictions. This deep understanding is crucial for drug development decision-making, offering insights into patient selection that current tools cannot predict, thereby maximizing the value of both approved and developmental drugs.

The newly acquired funds will be instrumental in enhancing Zephyr AI’s analytical capabilities and expanding its comprehensive training and validation datasets. Additionally, the investment will support the growth of the company’s scientific and commercial teams, accelerating the delivery of insights to the market.

With two abstracts accepted for publication at the upcoming American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting, Zephyr AI is poised to share its innovative scientific findings with the global community. The company’s expansions in data resources and algorithmic advancements are expected to transform precision medicine, improving outcomes for partners and patients alike. Jeff Sherman, Co-Founder, Interim CEO, and Chief Technology Officer, expressed enthusiasm for the company’s role in the evolving ecosystem of AI-enabled drug development.

As Zephyr AI continues to reshape the landscape of precision medicine through its partnerships and proprietary data, its mission to support patients, providers, and ongoing research stands as a beacon of innovation and hope in the fight against cancer and cardiometabolic diseases.