In a bold bet on the convergence of AI, genomics, and precision medicine, Mubadala Capital Ventures has joined a $30 million funding round for Tahoe Therapeutics, a US-based biotech innovator building what could become the world’s largest dataset for virtual cell modeling.
Tahoe’s mission: map one billion single-cell datapoints and one million drug-patient interactions to unlock a new era of AI-driven drug discovery. The goal is clear — reduce clinical trial failures and accelerate precision medicine breakthroughs.
Why Mubadala is Interested
For Mubadala, a leading MENA-based global investor, this investment aligns with its focus on deep tech and transformative healthcare platforms. The opportunity lies in Tahoe’s ability to create a GPT moment for human biology — where AI models trained on unprecedented biological data could generate clinically viable drug candidates faster than ever before.
Building on a Breakthrough
Earlier this year, Tahoe released Tahoe-100M, the world’s first gigascale perturbative single-cell dataset.
- ✅ Nearly 100,000 downloads in just months
- ✅ Adopted by top AI labs and research institutions
- ✅ Led to discovery of promising cancer therapeutics and novel biological targets
Now, Tahoe is scaling that vision 10x, charting unknown territory in biological foundation models.
Strategic Collaboration Model
With the fresh capital, Tahoe will:
- ✅ Expand its dataset to one billion datapoints
- ✅ Advance its own therapeutic programs toward clinical trials
- ✅ Select one strategic partner — likely a pharma or AI powerhouse — to co-develop the first medicines powered by virtual cell models
This “single-partner” approach is designed to merge Tahoe’s deep biological datasets with a collaborator’s clinical or AI strengths, accelerating the path from data to patient-ready treatments.
The Market Challenge Tahoe is Tackling
Drug discovery has a structural bottleneck:
- ✅ Molecular models often excel in silico but fail in clinical trials
- ✅ Clinical failure rates remain stubbornly high, inflating R&D costs and timelines
Tahoe’s approach, training AI on massive, diverse, and patient-relevant single-cell datasets — aims to bridge that gap and produce therapies that translate in real-world patients.
The Team Behind the Vision
Founded by Nima Alidoust, Johnny Yu, Hani Goodzari, and Kevan Shokat, Tahoe’s leadership blends expertise in:
- ✅ Single-cell genomics
- ✅ Machine learning
- ✅ Drug discovery at scale
Rooted in scientific breakthroughs from UCSF, Tahoe’s platform makes large-scale, single-cell drug screening feasible, fast, and scalable.
Mubadala’s Global Perspective
Mubadala’s participation reflects a growing trend of MENA sovereign wealth funds targeting US deep-tech ventures in biotech, AI, and life sciences. With the global precision medicine market projected to surpass $100B by 2030, this partnership could mark a pivotal shift in how drugs are discovered and brought to market.