Kevin Weil's Warp Sciences Raises $215M Series A Led by Lightspeed to Build a US Chemistry Lab for Drug Discovery

Warp Sciences is betting that AI for drug discovery is limited less by models than by the physical lab work of making and testing molecules, much of which is now done overseas. On Thursday, October 22, the company emerged from stealth with $215 million to build a US-based chemistry contract research organization (CRO) that brings together chemists, AI and robotics, according to its release. Kevin Weil, most recently OpenAI's chief product officer and vice president of science, announced the round on X as a $215 million Series A led by Lightspeed.

What Warp says it will do

Warp says its first service will be lead-optimization analog synthesis: making variations of molecules that scientists compare as they search for a drug candidate. Experienced chemists will guide the experiments while the lab is increasingly automated, with AI models trained on data from physical experiments, the company says. TechCrunch reports that the startup's chemists will wear cameras and sensor gloves to train robots to perform lab tasks. Warp says it has no proprietary drug pipeline and that customers decide which molecules to pursue and keep control of their programs. "We're not developing drugs of our own," co-founder and chief operating officer DJ Patil said in the release.

The pitch is partly about geography. Warp's release cites a 2024 Biotechnology Innovation Organization survey, as reported by Reuters, in which 74% of respondents reported contracts with Chinese companies for preclinical and clinical services. It also cites the BIOSECURE Act, which it says was signed into law in December 2025. TechCrunch writes that Weil hopes to bring that work back to the US and shield drug development from geopolitical supply-chain risk, naming WuXi AppTec as an example of the Chinese contractors involved. Co-founder and chief scientific officer Sol Reisberg said in the release that Warp aims to offer US chemistry services without the price premium that he says US boutique CROs charge.

Who is behind it

Warp's co-founders are Weil as chief executive, Reisberg, formerly in medicinal chemistry leadership at Terremoto Biosciences, Patil, the first US chief data scientist, and Mano Paluri, chief technology officer and formerly a vice president at Meta Superintelligence Labs, according to the release. The release says early hires come from robotics companies including Genesis, Skild AI and 1X, and from Genentech and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The release lists Premji Invest, Mayfield, IVP, Lux, Conviction, Menlo Ventures, 01 Advisors, Standard, Lowercarbon Capital, Gigascale Capital, Angular Ventures, Scribble Ventures, Uncork Capital, Innovation Endeavors, Matter VP, Zero Shot Fund, SignalFire and Moxxie Ventures as participants. Weil's X thread names further funds, including Avenir Growth and 500 Global. The release's angel investors are Brian Armstrong, Mike Krieger, Milan Kovac (a former Tesla robotics vice president), Ion Stoica, Fidji Simo, Brendan Foody, Mark Chen, Sarah Friar, Kate Rouch, Lulu Meservey, Deepak Pathak, Dylan Field and Lachy Groom.

The valuation question

TechCrunch reports that Warp raised the money at an $865 million valuation, "according to Weil, who announced the startup and funding on X." We read every post in Weil's thread and found no valuation, and the company's release does not give one.

Limits

• The $865 million valuation is TechCrunch's figure. It attributes the number to Weil's X announcement, but we did not find it there or in the release, and we have not been able to confirm it.
• TechCrunch's headline calls the company "Warp Science." The company's release and the body of TechCrunch's story use "Warp Sciences."
• We read the Business Wire release as syndicated by Yahoo Finance, because Business Wire's own page did not load for us.
• Funding and customer-control claims are the company's. The release names no customers.

Sources

• Warp Sciences via Business Wire (Yahoo Finance syndication): Warp Sciences Emerges From Stealth With $215 Million to Build U.S. Chemistry Services for Drug Research (October 22, 2026)
• Kevin Weil on X: Warp Sciences announcement thread (October 22, 2026)
• TechCrunch: Former OpenAI science lead launches Warp Science to automate wet labs with robots (October 22, 2026)