Bengaluru based Venomics AI has raised $2.7 million in a pre-seed round to turn animal venom into new medicines. The round was co-led by Speciale Invest and South Park Commons, with Operators Studio also taking part.
The round is the first institutional funding for the company, which was founded in May 2026 as a spinout of the Indian Institute of Science. It is worth about Rs 25.5 crore.
Venomics AI will use the money to expand the Venom Atlas, its growing dataset of venom molecules, and to strengthen its AI and laboratory screening. It also plans to hire across venom biology, computational science and drug discovery, and to validate its most promising molecules.
How the Venom Atlas works
The platform starts by sequencing venoms to build the Venom Atlas. AI then ranks the molecules most likely to work as drugs, and the team tests those predictions in its own laboratory.
The company says nature has produced more than 20 million venom peptides, yet fewer than 0.1 percent of them have been studied. Its own site puts the count at more than 20 million bioactive peptides across more than 100 disease-relevant targets.
That gap is the bet. Public databases hold only 40,000 to 60,000 venom entries, scattered across disconnected repositories, according to Speciale Invest. Venomics AI wants to close that gap with its own data.
Venom has already produced real drugs
Three approved drugs show what venom molecules can become. Captopril, inspired by peptides in Brazilian pit viper venom, was the first ACE inhibitor and reached peak sales of $1.6 billion a year.
Ziconotide, derived from a cone snail toxin, is a non-opioid pain drug about 1,000 times as potent as morphine. Exenatide, based on a molecule in Gila monster saliva, became the first GLP-1 drug for type 2 diabetes.
Venomics AI is hunting in the same territory. Its focus areas include antimicrobial resistance, diabetes and weight loss, pain through ion channels, cancer, ageing biology and bioinsecticides.
The team behind it
The company was founded by Kartik Sunagar and Vinay Prabhu. Sunagar is an associate professor at the Centre for Ecological Sciences at IISc, where he leads the Evolutionary Venomics Lab.
His research covers venom evolution and snakebite therapeutics, and he has published 101 papers with more than 6,500 citations. He also founded VISHAM, an institute for snakebite health and advanced medicine.
Prabhu is the chief technology officer. He holds a PhD in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and was earlier chief scientist at UnifyID. He leads the AI platforms that turn venom data into drug candidates.
The wider team includes chief scientific officer Purba Sarkar, who holds a PhD in cancer biology from IISc and was earlier head of product research and development at Demolish Foods.
“Animal venoms represent one of nature’s richest yet least explored sources of potential medicines, and at Venomics AI, we are combining cutting-edge experimental science with artificial intelligence to unlock this extraordinary potential. This investment accelerates our vision of building a world-class drug discovery platform that leverages India’s exceptional biodiversity and scientific talent to discover and develop breakthrough therapeutics in India, for the world.”
Kartik Sunagar, Founder and Director, Venomics AI
Why the investors backed it
Speciale Invest is making its second bet on Bengaluru AI drug discovery in nine months. In February 2026 it co-led a Rs 70 crore Series A in Peptris Technologies, another startup using AI to find new drugs.
Arjun Rao, general partner at Speciale Invest, pointed to the pairing of Sunagar’s venom expertise with Prabhu’s AI depth. Prateek Mehta of South Park Commons made the same point in plainer terms, saying venom is one of nature’s oldest targeting systems and AI changes how fast it can be searched.
“Few people combine his deep understanding of these venoms with the access to study them. Vinay brings the AI depth to accelerate this bio-discovery. Together, they are building the Venom Atlas, a unique dataset that will power AI to find drugs for some of the world’s most pressing diseases. That combination is rare, and we are excited to see the medicines it produces.”
Arjun Rao, General Partner, Speciale Invest
What comes next
The company is early. It has built the initial architecture of its platform, but no molecule has reached the clinic yet. The next year is about data and proof, not trials.
Two early signals back the team. Venomics AI has joined the NVIDIA Inception programme, and it was named among the top five finalists for the 2026 Indo-Boston Biotech Bridge Award.
Sunagar’s profile also lists support from the Anthropic AI for Science Grant and the Google Antigravity Science Programme. The fresh money now funds the unglamorous work of growing the atlas and proving the first candidates in the lab.
