Former SignalFire Investor Sahir Raoof Raises $27.5 Million Debut Fund for AI Drug Development Startups
Proximal Ventures closed a $27.5 million debut fund focused on investing in early-stage startups using AI to automate drug development services.
US venture capital firm Proximal Ventures has announced the close of its debut fund with $27.5 million. The firm was founded by Sahir Raoof, a former SignalFire investor who previously served as an executive at two healthcare startups. The fund targets startups that use artificial intelligence to transform the tools, infrastructure, and services supporting drug development.
Raoof argues that pharmaceutical companies have historically outsourced stages like molecular synthesis, manufacturing scaling, and clinical trial data analysis to specialized service providers. He believes AI can automate much of this work, allowing startups to deliver similar services at lower costs and significantly faster, thereby capturing billions in pharmaceutical industry spending. Proximal plans to invest in pre-seed and seed-stage startups, writing checks between $500,000 and $1.5 million.
The firm has already backed seven startups, including ChronicleBio, co-founded by former OpenAI executive Fidji Simo, which uses AI to analyze biological and medical data to understand chronic diseases and identify potential treatments. Proximal’s backers include VC firms SignalFire and Kleiner Perkins, Bertelsmann Healthcare Investments, and individual investors such as Dimension Capital co-founders Nan Li and Zavain Dar.