The modern method of inventing new materials is to make something and then use a computer to see if the material came out right. But what if you turned it around and used AI-driven generative software to design the material? That’s the premise of Cambridge, UK-based CuspAI, which has now secured $30 million in a seed round led by Hoxton Ventures, with significant participation from Basis Set Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
As co-founder and CEO Chad Edwards said, “We’re turning the old process on its head and saying, ‘Well, if you can put in materials or molecules and get properties, why can’t you put in properties and get materials and molecules?’
The market is dominated by players such as Schrodinger (listed on NASDAQ) and Dassault Systemes, both of which provide software tools for performing computational chemistry and material simulations.
Newer on the block is Orbital Materialsm, from part of the team behind Google’s Deepmind, which has an AI-powered platform that can be used to discover materials from batteries to carbon capture cells. It recently raised $16 million in Series A funding.
“In the same way that search engines made the Internet possible, we believe we’re on top of the world where you can search a very, very large space of new materials and molecules and discover new materials that have exactly the properties you want. We think we’re entering the era of ‘materials on demand,’” he said.
Indeed, the company says its platform acts as a material search engine, enabling the rapid evaluation of “a huge number of new structures.”
“Civilization has always been defined by the materials of that time, that is, the Bronze Age, the Stone Age, etc. We think we are entering the age of materials on demand,” he added.
The company only launched this year, and CuspAI seems to have its work cut out for it. However, Edwards is not starting completely from scratch.
Its co-founder is Max Welling, a professor and renowned pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence. He was also previously a distinguished scientist and vice president at Microsoft Research and Qualcomm and a professor at the University of Amsterdam. “Our artificial intelligence can generate and evaluate new materials on demand. For example, you can ask for a material that selectively binds carbon dioxide under specified conditions—the AI then generates, evaluates, and optimizes potential molecular structures that meet those exact criteria,” he said in a statement.
Edwards himslef is a chemist involved in the commercialization of deep technologies at Google and BASF, and most recently the leader of Quantinuum quantum computers.
Geoffrey Hinton, known as the “Godfather of AI,” will also serve as an advisor to the board.
Hinton said in a statement: “Humanity will face many challenges in the coming decade. Some will be caused by AI, while others can be solved by AI. I am very impressed with CuspAI and its mission to accelerate the process of designing new materials using artificial intelligence to mitigate one of humanity’s most pressing challenges: climate change.”
An area where CuspAI thinks AI-designed materials could have a significant near-term impact is carbon capture and storage.
“We’re looking at designing molecular sponges that selectively absorb carbon dioxide from the air,” Edwards said. “When you heat them up, they release carbon dioxide, which you can pipe off and use or bury underground, whatever you want.”
CuspAI is also working with Meta on its open science project to discover new materials to tackle climate change.
“The Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) team looks forward to working with CuspAI to use AI, including our OpenDAC work, to accelerate the discovery of new DAC sorbent materials,” Yann Le Cun, vice president and chief AI scientist at Meta, said in a statement. “The world needs rapid advances in affordable carbon capture, and we believe the CuspAI team is in an excellent position to apply AI-based materials discoveries to this urgent problem.”
Other investors in this round include LocalGlobe, Northzone, Touring Capital, Giant Ventures, FJ Labs, Tiferes Ventures and Zero Prime Ventures. Angel investors, including Mehdi Ghissassi and Dorothy Chou of Deepmind, also participated.