Lila Sciences raised $235 million at a roughly $1.23 billion valuation to build “AI science factories” that pair automated labs with large models trained on academic literature in materials, chemistry and life sciences. The Massachusetts startup, which emerged from stealth in March after a $200 million seed round, says its closed-loop system—running experiments and feeding results back into models—can compress research timelines by weeks or months. CEO Geoffrey von Maltzahn says proprietary experimental feedback helps overcome the limits of public data. Lila has tested thousands of candidate proteins, nucleic acids and materials but has yet to commercialize products; it plans to open its platform to select partners by year-end. Competitors chasing AI-driven discovery include Orbital Materials and Alphabet’s Isomorphic Labs.
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