Bengaluru biotech startup Mandrake Bio has secured ₹16 crore in pre-seed funding to accelerate the development of AI-designed gene-editing enzymes. The investment will help the company expand its research team, strengthen its AI platform and validate new biological tools that could be used in agriculture and medical therapies.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Startup | Mandrake Bio |
| Headquarters | Bengaluru |
| Sector | AI, Biotechnology, Gene Editing |
| Funding | ₹16 Crore |
| Round | Pre-Seed |
| Lead Investors | Activate, Antler India |
| Other Investors | Spectrum Impact, DeVC, Vijay Chandru, Paras Chopra, Sanjiv Rangrass, Vatsal Dusad |
| Founded | 2025 |
| Founders | Tanay Lohia & Dr. Kutubuddin Molla |
The Story
Artificial intelligence is beginning to move beyond software and into scientific research, and Mandrake Bio is positioning itself at that intersection.
The Bengaluru-based startup has announced a ₹16 crore pre-seed funding round, co-led by Activate and Antler India, with participation from Spectrum Impact, DeVC and several prominent angel investors from the biotechnology and startup ecosystem.
Unlike traditional gene-editing companies that improve existing tools such as CRISPR, Mandrake Bio is building new programmable gene-editing enzymes from scratch using generative AI and protein-design models. The company says this approach could significantly reduce the time required to design and test new biological tools.
The fresh capital will be used to expand the company’s AI and biophysics teams, improve its protein-design platform and accelerate laboratory validation of its AI-generated enzymes before moving towards commercial partnerships.
Funding Snapshot
| Startup | Mandrake Bio |
| Funding Amount | ₹16 Crore |
| Funding Round | Pre-Seed |
| Sector | AI & Biotechnology |
| Headquarters | Bengaluru, India |
| Lead Investors | Activate & Antler India |
About Mandrake Bio
Founded in 2025 by Tanay Lohia and Dr. Kutubuddin Molla, Mandrake Bio combines computational biology, artificial intelligence and molecular science to build next-generation gene-editing technologies.
The startup’s initial commercial focus is expected to be agriculture, with longer-term applications extending into therapeutics and healthcare
Why This Funding Matters
AI is rapidly expanding beyond chatbots and coding assistants into scientific research.
Drug discovery, protein engineering, material science and synthetic biology are becoming major investment themes globally. By applying AI to gene editing, startups like Mandrake Bio are attempting to shorten research cycles that traditionally take years.
If successful, this approach could help develop climate-resilient crops, improve precision agriculture and enable more targeted genetic therapies.
Motiva8 Take
Most funding stories focus on the cheque size. The bigger story here is where the capital is flowing.
Investors are increasingly backing deep-tech founders solving hard scientific problems rather than only consumer internet businesses. India has produced strong SaaS and fintech companies over the past decade. The next wave of value creation may come from AI applied to biology, advanced manufacturing and climate technologies.
Mandrake Bio is still at a very early stage, and commercial success will depend on whether its technology performs in real-world laboratory validation. However, this funding reflects growing investor confidence that Indian startups can build globally relevant frontier technologies—not just software products.
5 Key Facts
- Bengaluru-based biotech startup founded in 2025.
- Raised ₹16 crore in a pre-seed funding round.
- Round co-led by Activate and Antler India.
- Uses generative AI to design programmable gene-editing enzymes.
- Initial focus is agriculture, with future healthcare applications.
