Breakout Ventures Raises $114M for Neuroscience and AI-driven Startups
Investment firm Breakout Ventures has raised a $114 million venture fund aimed at early-stage startups working in neuroscience and developing artificial intelligence technologies for biomedical research and neuroscience.
Fund III will support companies developing laboratory automation, computational chemistry tools, and AI systems applied to biomedical research, with investments expected to focus on very early-stage companies where new scientific discoveries may translate into commercial technologies.
Neuroscience is one of the areas highlighted by managing partner Lindy Fishburne. The field has seen an increase in biomarker discoveries and a growing availability of digital health data, which can be analyzed using computational tools and artificial intelligence to support research and drug development.
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Another focus area is the application of artificial intelligence and automation to laboratory research.
Breakout Ventures has already deployed part of the capital into three startups. These include Reach Industries, which develops robotics software intended to automate laboratory workflows, as well as two undisclosed companies—one focused on computational chemistry approaches for small-molecule drug discovery and another working on commercializing novel scientific technologies.
Breakout Ventures positions itself between traditional biotechnology investors and technology-focused venture firms. Its first fund recorded a notable outcome with medical diagnostics company Cytovale, which developed the first FDA-cleared rapid sepsis diagnostic powered by AI used in emergency departments.
Fund II, closed in December 2021, secured $112.5M. With it, Breakout Ventures led the investment in Surf Bio, a company developing monoclonal antibody delivery technologies, which Halozyme Therapeutics acquired in January for $300 million upfront.
In 2024, Breakout backed AI-driven biotech startup Noetik. The company analyzes spatial biological data to study tumor environments and identify patients likely to respond to immunotherapies with its OCTO-VirtualCell, a foundation model that simulates how virtual cells behave within patient tissue environments.
In 2025, Noetik signed a collaboration with Agenus to develop precision immunotherapy programs, followed by another multi-year partnership agreement with GSK, which includes a non-exclusive license to Noetik’s virtual cell models in early 2026.
Topic: Biotech Ventures
