Venomics AI | $2.7M (Pre-Seed)

Founders: Kartik Sunagar, Vinay Prabhu

HQ: Bengaluru

Sector: BioTech / AI Drug Discovery

What they do

→ IISc spinout that finds potential medicines in animal venoms, combining venom biology, molecular sequencing, AI and laboratory screening

→ Builds the Venom Atlas, a growing dataset of venom-derived molecules

→ AI prioritises the most promising candidates, which are lab tested, and the results feed back to improve predictions

→ Founded by Kartik Sunagar (venom evolution and antivenom expertise) and Vinay Prabhu (machine learning and large-scale AI)

The Funding

→ Raised $2.7 million in pre-seed funding, its first institutional round

→ Co-led by Speciale Invest and South Park Commons, with Operators Studio participating

→ Capital earmarked for expanding the Venom Atlas, strengthening AI and lab screening, and validating and optimising promising molecules

→ Will also build a team across biology, computational science and drug discovery

Why it matters

→ Venom-derived medicines already exist: captopril, inspired by snake venom peptides, and ziconotide, from cone snail venom

→ Speciale’s Arjun Rao said the combination of venom biology and AI is rare and that he is excited to see the medicines it produces

→ Has joined the NVIDIA Inception programme and was a top five finalist for the 2026 Indo-Boston Biotech Bridge Award

→ Aims to connect India’s venom biodiversity with AI to build a drug discovery platform for global therapeutics

Can India’s rich venomous wildlife become the raw material for a new generation of drugs, or is the road from venom to medicine too long for a startup?