CuspAI, an artificial intelligence company developing a platform for next-generation materials, has raised $30 million in seed funding, marking one of the largest AI investments this year.
The company, headquartered in Cambridge, aims to use this investment to address global sustainability and clean energy challenges, particularly climate change.
The funding round was led by Hoxton Ventures, known for investing in Cogna and Malted AI, with significant contributions from Basis Set Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Other participants included LocalGlobe, Northzone, Touring Capital, Giant Ventures, FJ Labs, Tiferes Ventures, and Zero Prime Ventures. Prominent angel investors, such as Mehdi Ghissassi and Dorothy Chou from Google Deepmind, also joined the round.
Charles Seely, Partner at Hoxton Ventures, expressed confidence in the company’s leadership: “I’ve known Chad for several years and recognized him as a truly gifted individual who had the ability to lead an extraordinary team.
The partnership that he has forged with Max is one that I’m sure will help solve some of the world’s most critical problems.”
Lan Xuezhao, founding and managing partner at Basis Set Ventures, emphasized the importance of the company’s mission: “The importance of new material discovery demands the mindshare of our absolute best and brightest.
This Cusp team is exactly who you want dedicating their technical horsepower and business acumen to this essential effort.”
Paul Murphy, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, praised CuspAI’s innovative approach: “CuspAI is taking an entirely new approach to integrating efficient evaluation stacks, optimization, and generative models to create high-quality, economically viable materials that would have previously taken decades to discover.
At Lightspeed, we believe the CuspAI team is leading the way into a new era where finding solutions for societally critical global challenges could become as easy as searching the web and we’re proud to partner with them.”
Hussein Kanji, Partner at Hoxton Ventures, highlighted the potential impact of CuspAI’s work: “Our fund is premised on the idea that European founders would start and win the industry categories of tomorrow.
It’s clear that AI has the ability to shake up how we design materials, and CuspAI has assembled some of the best people in the world to do this, starting with both Chad and Max.”
The Visionary Team Behind CuspAI
CuspAI was founded by Professor Max Welling, a pioneering AI expert and former Distinguished Scientist and VP at Microsoft Research and Qualcomm, alongside Dr. Chad Edwards, a chemist with a background in deep-tech commercialization at Google, BASF, and most recently, the quantum computing leader Quantinuum.
CuspAI believes AI-designed materials can have a significant near-term impact, especially in carbon capture and storage. This critical technology for reducing greenhouse gas emissions is projected to be a $4 trillion industry by 2050.
Geoffrey Hinton underscored the company’s mission: “Humanity will face many challenges in the coming decade. Some will be caused by AI while others can be solved by AI. I’ve been very impressed by CuspAI and its mission to accelerate the design process of new materials using AI to curb one of humanity’s most urgent challenges – climate change.”
The company has appointed one of the world’s most accomplished computational chemists as Chief Scientist and has built a world-leading research team based in Cambridge and Amsterdam. Additionally, Geoffrey Hinton, the godfather of AI, serves as a board advisor.
Innovative Approach to Material Design
CuspAI integrates advanced machine learning with material science and process design to revolutionize the future of materials.
Using generative AI, deep learning, and molecular simulation, the company streamlines the material design process.
Their platform functions like a search engine for materials, enabling users to request specific properties for new materials on demand, leading to rapid generation and evaluation of novel structures.
Professor Max Welling, Co-founder and Chief AI Officer, explained: “Imagine a search engine not just for existing materials, but for all potential molecules and materials that could be created. Our AI can generate and evaluate new materials on demand. For example, you can request a material that selectively binds carbon dioxide under specified conditions – the AI then generates, evaluates, and optimizes the potential molecular structures that meet those exact criteria. Through careful process optimization and lab testing, we’re able to close the loop and ensure materials are synthesisable, stable, and ultimately useful in production.”
Dr. Chad Edwards, Co-founder and CEO, highlighted the broader implications: “The AI revolution is itself creating new challenges, including rapidly increasing energy consumption and carbon emissions from data centers. Our technology can help mitigate this impact by designing materials that efficiently capture carbon dioxide.”
Partnership with Meta
CuspAI has recently partnered with Meta to further its open science contributions focused on the discovery of new materials to address climate change. Yann LeCun, VP and Chief AI Scientist at Meta, commented: “The Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) team is looking forward to collaborating with CuspAI in their use of AI, including our OpenDAC work, to accelerate the discovery of novel DAC sorbent materials. The world needs fast progress on affordable carbon capture, and we believe that CuspAI’s team is in an excellent position to apply AI-based materials discovery to this pressing problem.”
Looking Ahead
With $30 million in funding from major investors, CuspAI is poised to tackle global sustainability and climate challenges. Leveraging generative AI and deep learning, the company aims to revolutionize material design, particularly in carbon capture and other critical technologies. An impressive leadership team and strategic partnerships position CuspAI to lead the way in creating sustainable solutions for the future.