Radical Numerics, an AI research lab founded by the team behind Evo (the first open-source model to read and write DNA at scale), announced a $50 million seed round led by Emergence Capital with participation from Obvious Ventures, Triatomic Capital, Factory, and First Spark Ventures. The company is building general biological intelligence—multimodal AI that reasons across DNA, RNA, proteins, and other biological data—with dual focus on advancing human health and biodefense.
Alongside the funding, Radical Numerics previewed Omnii, its next-generation genome language model featuring a 2M-token context window and multimodality. The company is partnering with a cancer diagnostics firm on pancreatic and multi-cancer detection, combining molecular signals into unified diagnostics. It's also collaborating with a national laboratory to develop AI-powered pathogen detection. CEO Eric Nguyen frames the challenge directly: the same models that accelerate drug discovery can lower barriers to biological weapons.
For architects evaluating biosecurity and AI-biology convergence: Radical Numerics is among the first frontier-model companies to bake dual-mandate (design + defense) into the foundation rather than bolt-on safety later. The $50M valuation reflects investor appetite for AI applied to biology's code, but it also signals early capital racing to dominate a space where release strategies (open vs proprietary) will shape biosecurity posture for the decade ahead.