Converge Bio, an AI-based startup founded in Israel that helps speed up drug discovery and development, has raised $25 million in Series A funding. With this new round, the company’s total funding has reached $30 million.
The funding round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with support from TLV Partners, Vintage Investment Partners, Saras Capital, and senior leaders from Meta, OpenAI, and Wiz.
Converge was started in 2024 and has already gained more than a dozen pharmaceutical and biotech customers. These companies use its platform to find new drug targets, design antibodies, and improve protein manufacturing.
Converge’s platform brings many AI models into one easy-to-use system that fits smoothly into existing drug development processes. This allows scientists to get useful results without needing to write any code or set up complex technical systems.
“The conversation needs to shift from models to AI systems,” said Dov Gertz, CEO and co-founder of Converge Bio. “Unlike ChatGPT, you can’t simply prompt a model and get useful results. It requires high-quality data, the right architectures, and a tight experimental validation loop. That’s why most drug development is still done through trial and error, taking years and costing hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Converge’s technology is already showing strong results in many medical areas such as cancer, brain-related diseases, and autoimmune disorders. In the past year alone, the company completed more than 40 projects with its partners.
Through these programs, Converge helped discover new high-quality antibodies, increased protein manufacturing output by 4 to 7 times, and identified important biomarkers that help doctors choose the right treatment for patients and improve their response to therapy.
Converge is led by an experienced team. One of its leaders, Gertz, created a machine-learning method to discover new CRISPR gene-editing systems.
The company’s Chief Scientific Officer, Iddo Weiner, has successfully guided two drug programs through Phase 2 clinical trials.
Its Chief Technology Officer, Oded Kalev, previously worked as an AI leader in cybersecurity and has advised U.S. government agencies on large-scale generative AI projects.
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