Singapore-based Gero, a physics-first AI drug discovery company focused on age-related disease, has announced USD 17 million in new equity financing, bringing total equity raised to USD 34 million. Gero's aging platform is backed by a previously disclosed collaboration with Japan-based Chugai Pharmaceutical, a Roche Group member, structured around an upfront payment and up to USD 250 million in milestones plus royalties.
The financing included participation from Melnichek Investments, an AI-focused firm whose founder was behind AIMatter, subsequently acquired by Google. Other participants included an early backer of a company acquired by Facebook (now Meta), the co-founder of NYSE-listed EPAM Systems, and senior operators from the pharmaceutical and technology sectors. Gero said proceeds will support preclinical development of its proprietary pipeline and continued expansion of pharmaceutical partnerships. The company also previously conducted a research collaboration with Pfizer in 2023.
Gero applies AI and physics-based modeling to longitudinal health data to identify biological mechanisms associated with aging and age-related disease. The platform also incorporates ProtoBind-Diff, a generative AI model for small-molecule design directly from protein sequence. Under the Chugai collaboration, Chugai is developing drug candidates against targets identified by Gero's discovery engine.
The scientific framework underlying the platform was developed over more than a decade by co-founder and CEO Peter Fedichev and, more recently, in collaboration with Jan Gruber, PhD, of the National University of Singapore.