Isomorphic Labs – a company using frontier AI for drug design and development – is the latest to receive investment from Sovereign AI
Isomorphic Labs, a London-founded and headquartered company, using AI to design and develop new medicines, has been named as the latest firm to receive investment from the UK Taxpayers' Sovereign AI Fund today (Tuesday 12 May).
The investment forms part of a fundraise announced by Isomorphic Labs today, as it scales up its work to tackle some of the world’s most serious diseases.
The company, founded by Nobel Prize-winner Sir Demis Hassabis, is reimagining drug discovery, with AI at its core.
Launched just last month, Sovereign AI is the government’s big bet on promising early-stage AI companies to help them grow, scale and succeed from Britain, offering a range of backing to high-potential AI businesses that are starting out here in the UK.
It is a venture capital fund with the muscle of the state behind it – moving fast, backing ambition and cutting through the red tape that so often holds brilliant ideas back, so they can go on to succeed globally.
Science and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said:
Isomorphic’s work builds on the breakthrough success of AlphaFold: the AI model developed by DeepMind that sent shockwaves through the world of science through its ability to accurately predict the structures of proteins – which are the chemical building blocks of all life on Earth.
Isomorphic Labs is going beyond AlphaFold, developing a number of proprietary breakthrough AI models that together form its unified drug design engine, across multiple therapeutic areas and drug modalities.
This backing brings the number of startups receiving equity investment from Sovereign AI to 3 since it launched, and the overall number of startups receiving Sovereign AI backing - including support accessing compute – to 9.
Sovereign AI Head of Ventures Joséphine Kant said:
AI is the defining technology of our era. For Britain to shape its own future in the years ahead, the UK needs to strong, homegrown AI capability. That means backing the very best AI innovators, founders and entrepreneurs to bring their ideas to life here - and grow and succeed from the UK. With the third largest AI market in the world and more AI startups than anywhere else in Europe, the UK is starting from a position of strength but we know we need to go further and faster. Sovereign AI is the government doing exactly that: making sure the next wave of AI breakthroughs are built in Britain so the benefits – jobs, growth and innovation – remain on our shores.
All of the companies Sovereign AI supports have a meaningful presence here in the UK, and are set to create jobs and contribute to the economy here.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Editor’s Note
The so-called “Sovereign AI Fund” is frequently presented by politicians and officials as though it were the Government investing its own money. It is not. The money belongs to the British public. It is taxpayers’ money being placed at risk by the state. In practical terms, that means:
• The initial £500 million comes from public finances.
• The Government is deploying that capital into private AI firms.
• If those firms succeed, the state may benefit through equity growth, dividends, or strategic economic gains.
• If those firms fail, taxpayers absorb the loss.
This distinction matters. Governments do not generate wealth independently; they allocate money collected from taxpayers or borrowed in the taxpayers’ name. Calling it “government money” obscures the fact that ordinary working people are ultimately underwriting these investments.
Whether one supports or opposes the policy, honesty in language is important. The risk does not sit with ministers personally. It sits with the public.