Warp Sciences emerges from stealth with $215 million to automate chemistry research

South San Francisco-based Warp Sciences announced on October 22 that it has emerged from stealth with $215 million in funding led by Lightspeed. This story covers The Robot Report's October 28 report on the round. The company is building a US-based chemistry contract research organization that brings together chemists, robotics and AI to make and test molecules for biotech and pharmaceutical research teams. It says it has no proprietary drug pipeline; its automated labs are designed to run experiments, learn from them and improve with each cycle, generating experimental data to train better AI. Its initial service will focus on lead-optimization analog synthesis, with experienced chemists guiding experiments as automation increases. Warp frames the business around sovereign biotechnology, citing the BIOSECURE Act signed in December 2025 and a 2024 Biotechnology Innovation Organization survey in which 74% of respondents reported contracts with Chinese companies for preclinical and clinical services. Co-founder and CEO Kevin Weil was previously chief product officer and vice president of science at OpenAI; CTO Manohar Paluri was a vice president at Meta Superintelligence Labs and a founding member of FAIR; chief scientific officer Solomon Reisberg held medicinal chemistry leadership roles at Terremoto Biosciences; DJ Patil, a founding executive at Devoted Health, was the first US chief data scientist. Investors include Premji Invest, Mayfield, IVP, Lux, Conviction and Menlo Ventures, with angels including Brian Armstrong, Mike Krieger, Ion Stoica, Fidji Simo, Dylan Field and Lachy Groom.

DTT summary based on The Robot Report's report. The full article is on the publisher's site.