Boston AI start-up raises $200 million

After 2 years in stealth, a Cambridge, Massachusetts–based start-up has emerged with plans to conduct science in automated laboratories that run on a special version of artificial intelligence. Lila Sciences has secured $200 million in seed funding from Flagship Pioneering, which incubated the company, and General Catalyst, March Capital, Ark Venture Fund, and others. The company’s overarching goal is to use “superintelligence” to solve humanity’s biggest challenges, such as finding new drugs and discovering greener solutions in the face of climate change, CEO Geoffrey von Maltzahn says. “It is, of course, a lofty mission,” he says. The company’s algorithms are trained on both publicly available scientific papers and proprietary data generated by its automated labs. Lila aspires to create a centralized AI model that can aid in designing and performing thousands of experiments using robotics and automation across fields such as biology, chemistry, and materials science. “Lila’s worldview is to