Potential Sciences, an AI startup building large-scale chemical data sets, secured backing from the UK's Sovereign AI Fund, as part of an eight-figure raise (Joel Khalili/Wired)

London-based startup Potential Sciences has secured an eight-figure funding round as part of a raise in the tens of millions of dollars, according to Techmeme and Tech.eu. The company, which was founded in November last year, builds AI infrastructure for scientific drug discovery by utilizing machine learning and quantum chemistry simulations.

Tech.eu reports that the startup focuses its AI models on the fundamental laws of physics rather than previous experimental data, a method it claims could make the AI calculations required for chemical design 100 times cheaper than current methods.

The funding round includes backing from the UK government’s Sovereign AI fund, which is also committing compute capacity to the company. Tech.eu notes that the Sovereign AI fund's mission is to ensure the UK develops, owns, and scales key AI firms. Other investors in the seed round include Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, Twin Path Ventures, Odyssey, Portfolio Ventures, Blue Wire Capital, rule30, Nauta Capital, Lightfield Equity, and various angel investors. Potential Sciences has declined to disclose its valuation or the exact amount raised.

Brief written by urgent.news from Techmeme, Tech.eu — 2 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.