Warp Sciences, a start-up launched by former OpenAI science lead Kevin Weil, has raised $215 million at an $865 million valuation, TechCrunch reported on October 22, 2026. Lightspeed led the round, with IVP, Mayfield, Lux Capital, Premji Invest and Menlo Ventures participating. The company is building robots that make and test candidate drug compounds around the clock.
Why it matters: wet-lab chemistry is manual, repetitive and largely outsourced. It is one of the first non-factory jobs to draw a nine-figure physical-AI round.
Key Facts
- Round: $215M at $865M valuation (Oct 22, 2026)
- Lead: Lightspeed; also IVP, Mayfield, Lux Capital, Premji Invest, Menlo Ventures
- Training data: chemists wearing cameras and sensor gloves
- Goal: reshore drug-discovery synthesis now done by CROs in China
How do the robots learn lab work?
From people. Human chemists wear cameras and sensor gloves while doing lab tasks, and the robots are trained on the recorded work, according to TechCrunch. The approach mirrors how general-purpose robot companies collect first-person demonstration data, applied to a single domain.
Why reshoring?
Biotech companies have long outsourced labour-intensive molecule synthesis to contract research organisations in China such as WuXi AppTec. Weil wants to bring that work back to the US and cut exposure to geopolitical supply-chain risk. US policy has pushed in the same direction; our outbound-investment report covers one recent enforcement case.
Secondary coverage named DJ Patil, Manohar Paluri and Solomon Reisberg as co-founders. Warp has not disclosed its location, headcount or first customers.
Frequently Asked
What is Warp Sciences?
A start-up launched by former OpenAI science lead Kevin Weil that uses robots to make and test candidate drug compounds. It raised $215 million at an $865 million valuation in October 2026.
Who invested in Warp Sciences?
Lightspeed led, with IVP, Mayfield, Lux Capital, Premji Invest and Menlo Ventures.