San Mateo, California-based BigHat Biosciences has raised USD 75 million in a Series C financing to advance its clinical-stage pipeline of AI-designed protein therapeutics and expand its agentic data platform for protein design, bringing total funding to USD 223 million.
The round was co-led by DFJ Growth and Premji Invest, with participation from Catalio Capital Management, LG Technology Ventures, and Sigmas Group. Existing investors including 8VC, Alexandria Venture Investments, Amgen Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Discovery Ventures, Eli Lilly and Company, GRIDS Capital, Intermountain Ventures, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Quadrille Capital, and Section 32 also participated. The Series C follows an USD 80 million Series B in 2022 and a USD 44 million Series B extension in 2025.
Proceeds will support BHB810, a cadherin-17 (CDH17)-directed VHH-Fc antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) for gastric cancer and other advanced gastrointestinal malignancies, which entered a Phase I dose-escalation study with the first patient dosed in September 2026. A second candidate, BHB299, an avidity-driven T-cell engager targeting CEACAM6-expressing solid tumors, is nearing completion of preclinical development, with human trials planned for 2027.
BigHat’s Milliner platform integrates automated high-throughput experimentation with custom AI and machine learning models to generate biological data and iteratively optimize protein therapeutics. The platform's scientific foundations draw on the research careers of co-founders Mark DePristo, former co-director of medical and population genetics at the Broad Institute and founder of the Genomics team at Google Brain, and Peyton Greenside from Stanford University.