What Lila Sciences does

Lila Sciences, founded in 2023 and spun out of Flagship Pioneering, builds a Scientific Superintelligence platform that pairs a proprietary scientific reasoning model (Lila Iris) with a network of autonomous laboratories called AI Science Factories (AISF). The platform runs the scientific method end-to-end — generating hypotheses, designing experiments, executing them in robotic labs, and learning from results via reinforcement learning with verifiable experimental rewards — and is applied across eight verticals spanning therapeutics, advanced materials, chemicals, oil & gas, energy and environment, aerospace and defense, and biotech.

The company commercializes through two engagement models: Catalyst, a Lab-as-a-Service offering that gives enterprise partners on-demand access to Lila Iris and the AISFs to accelerate existing R&D programs, and Creation, an end-to-end discovery delivery service that returns validated molecules, materials, protocols, and data packages — and can spawn new companies around breakthrough IP. Pricing is quote-based on custom multi-year contracts; the platform integrates deeply with NVIDIA's BioNeMo Agent Toolkit, Nemotron 3, Nemotron Omni, and ALCHEMI.

Lila Sciences is privately held, headquartered in Cambridge, MA with hubs in San Francisco, Boston, and London, employs 101–250 people, and has raised approximately $550M across a $200M seed (March 2025) and a $350M Series A (first close September 2025, NVIDIA-led $115M extension October 2025) at a $1.3B+ post-money valuation. Investor syndicate includes Flagship Pioneering, Braidwell, Collective Global, NVentures (NVIDIA), ADIA subsidiary, General Catalyst, March Capital, IQT, and Analog Devices.

Name

Lila Sciences

Legal name

Lila Sciences, Inc.

Website

https://lila.ai

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Lila Sciences builds a Scientific Superintelligence platform that pairs a proprietary AI reasoning model (Lila Iris) with autonomous laboratory networks (AI Science Factories) to compress enterprise R&D cycles across therapeutics, materials, chemicals, energy, aerospace, and biotech.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Scientific AI Platform / AI-Driven R&D Services

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417), Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology) (541715)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Services-Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management (8700)

akta.pro primary industry

AI/ML Platforms for Drug Discovery & Experiment Optimization (HLAGAJAO)

akta.pro secondary industries

Knowledge Management & Scientific Collaboration / Literature Intelligence (HLAGAJAN), Scientific Data Management & Data Platforms (SDMS/Data Lakehouse for R&D) (HLAGAJAC), Model Deployment, Serving & Inference Platforms (HDAAABAF)

Keywords

• Scientific AI platform
• Autonomous laboratories
• AI drug discovery
• Materials discovery
• Lab automation services

Headquarters

HQ city

Cambridge

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Catalyst (Lab-as-a-Service): Platform access product offering partners direct access to Lila Iris and AI Science Factories plus scientific experts. Designed to convert fixed lab capacity and capex into an on-demand resource. Engagement with commercial customers in strategic scientific domains began with the Series A.
2. Creation (End-to-End Discovery Campaigns): Delivery model where LILA runs end-to-end discovery campaigns for partners to deliver new molecules and materials that meet a target product profile. Generates validated assets (structures, protocols, data packages) that partners can drop into their pipeline or build new programs around. Includes early-stage company creation in partnership with investors or strategic partners.
3. Strategic Partnerships and Joint Discovery: LILA partners with energy and other industrial companies (e.g., referenced Shell R&D use case) on AI-directed lab experimentation to compress R&D cycles from decades to months. The system operates on top of customers' existing data and platforms, functioning as a managed discovery service.
4. Government and Research Grants: Lila Sciences participates in federally funded research initiatives, such as the ARPA-E CATALCHEM-E program through the Accelerated Catalyst Design Foundry led by Argonne National Laboratory.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Lila Sciences operates a scientific superintelligence platform that pairs its proprietary Lila Iris scientific reasoning model with a network of autonomous laboratories called AI Science Factories (AISF) to autonomously generate hypotheses, design and run experiments, and learn from results in real time. The platform is delivered to enterprise partners through two commercial products: Catalyst, a Lab-as-a-Service giving partners direct access to Lila Iris and the AISF, and Creation, an end-to-end discovery service that delivers validated molecules, materials, and protocols across therapeutics, advanced materials, chemicals, energy and environment, oil and gas, aerospace and defense, and biotech.

Product overview

Lila Sciences sells a single unified Scientific Superintelligence platform with a clear platform-plus-modules architecture. The core is the proprietary Lila Iris scientific reasoning model (the "brain"), which is tightly integrated with the AI Science Factory (AISF) network of autonomous labs (the "body"). Together they form an intelligence flywheel: experiments generate scientific tokens and verifiable rewards, which retrain the model, which designs the next experiments. Partners engage with this core through two named product offerings — Lila Catalyst (Lab-as-a-Service that gives partner scientists on-demand access to Lila Iris and the AISFs to accelerate existing R&D) and Lila Creation (end-to-end discovery delivery, where Lila runs full campaigns and returns validated molecules, materials, and IP). These are applied through vertical solutions spanning Therapeutics (genetic medicines, antibodies), Advanced Materials (extreme-environment coatings), Chemicals (sorbents, catalysis), Energy & Environment (electrocatalysis, magnetics), Oil & Gas, Aerospace & Defense, and Biotech (gene products, bioprocessing, reagents & assays). Lila further augments the platform via its NVIDIA BioNeMo Agent Toolkit integration, which adds domain-specific foundation models, NVIDIA NIM microservices, and Nemotron-based literature-review tools to its agentic workflows.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Lila Iris: Lila's proprietary scientific reasoning model; the AI 'mind' of the platform that can be deployed in partners' hands as part of the Catalyst offering.
• AI Science Factory (AISF)
• Catalyst
• Creation
• Scientific Superintelligence

Products and services

• Lila Iris
• AI Science Factory (AISF)
• Lila Catalyst
• Lila Creation
• Therapeutics Solution (Genetic Medicines and Antibody Therapeutics)
• Advanced Materials Solution
• Chemicals Solution (Sorbents and Catalysis)
• Energy and Environment Solution (Electrocatalysis and Magnetics)
• Oil and Gas Solution
• Aerospace and Defense Solution
• Biotech Solution (Gene Products, Bioprocessing, Reagents and Assays)

Quantifiable outcome

• 900x increase in experimental validation (DNA Design)
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments8 records

Ideal customer profiles6 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

AI capability11 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core technology integration, major government partner, government research partner, academic research partner, industry research partner, industry partner, government r&d partner and real estate / facility partner.

• NVIDIA BioNeMo Agent Toolkitcore technology integrationTechnology or Integration · 22 June 2026Lila trains reasoning models on open-source NVIDIA Nemotron 3 and integrates NVIDIA BioNeMo Agent Toolkit (domain-specific models, NVIDIA NIM microservices, open models, life-science recipes). Lila's agents use BioNeMo models for structure prediction and de novo design, leveraging NVIDIA ALCHEMI for scientific simulations and NVIDIA Nemotron Omni for literature review.
• U.S. Department of Energy / Argonne National Laboratorymajor government partnerStrategic or Co-development Partner · 29 May 2026Lila Sciences is a partner on ARPA-E's $2.77M Accelerated Catalyst Design Foundry led by Argonne National Laboratory, part of the broader $34M CATALCHEM-E program to cut industrial catalyst development time from 15–20 years to under five years using AI and automated labs.
• SLAC National Accelerator Laboratorygovernment research partnerStrategic or Co-development Partner · 29 May 2026SLAC is a partner on ARPA-E's Accelerated Catalyst Design Foundry / CATALCHEM-E program alongside Lila Sciences.
• Johns Hopkins Universityacademic research partnerStrategic or Co-development Partner · 29 May 2026Johns Hopkins is a partner on ARPA-E's Accelerated Catalyst Design Foundry / CATALCHEM-E program alongside Lila Sciences.
• GTI Energyindustry research partnerStrategic or Co-development Partner · 29 May 2026GTI Energy is a partner on ARPA-E's Accelerated Catalyst Design Foundry / CATALCHEM-E program alongside Lila Sciences.
• Johnson Mattheyindustry partnerStrategic or Co-development Partner · 29 May 2026Johnson Matthey is a partner on ARPA-E's Accelerated Catalyst Design Foundry / CATALCHEM-E program alongside Lila Sciences.
• UK ARIA (Advanced Research and Invention Agency)government r&d partnerStrategic or Co-development Partner · 20 January 2026UK ARIA selected Lila Sciences for a £500K grant to build an AI nano-scientist for quantum dot research as part of a £6M portfolio of 12 AI scientist projects (selected from 245 proposals).
• IQHQreal estate / facility partnerStrategic or Co-development Partner · 16 October 2025IQHQ partnered with Lila Sciences to secure a 244,000 sq ft lease at Alewife Park laboratory campus in Cambridge, MA — one of the largest life science real estate deals in Greater Boston that year. A new 200,000 sq ft AISF facility is under construction, planned to open Q3 2026.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Recursion Pharmaceuticals: Recursion combines high-throughput experimental biology with AI/machine-learning models to discover therapeutics. Directly comparable to Lila's Therapeutics vertical and its closed-loop integration of AI with automated wet-lab experimentation (via Recursion's BioHive/Boltz-1 stack).
• Insitro: Insitro applies machine learning to drug discovery by combining data generation (including induced pluripotent stem cell-derived disease models) with ML models. Closely comparable to Lila's therapeutics and biotech verticals and its model-plus-experimentation strategy.
• Generate:Biomedicines: Generate:Biomedicines (Nasdaq: GENB) pioneered generative AI for protein and therapeutic design. Co-founded by Lila CEO Geoffrey von Maltzahn and CTO Andrew Beam; uses a similar closed-loop ML-and-lab architecture and is the most direct comparability reference for Lila's antibody and protein design work.
• Schrödinger, Inc. Schrödinger provides a computational chemistry and materials simulation platform used for drug and materials discovery. Comparable to Lila's chemistry/materials and Catalyst capabilities (predictive modeling at the front end of a discovery workflow), though Schrödinger is software-only and does not operate autonomous labs.
• Exscientia: Exscientia applies AI-driven design to small-molecule drug discovery with an integrated automated synthesis and biology lab. Directly comparable to Lila's end-to-end Creation offering in the therapeutics vertical and its use of closed-loop AI+lab automation.
• Citrine Informatics: Citrine Informatics uses AI for materials and chemicals R&D, with a platform aimed at accelerating industrial materials discovery. Closely comparable to Lila's Advanced Materials, Chemicals, and Energy & Environment verticals.

Broad incumbents

• Isomorphic Labs: Alphabet-owned commercial spinout of DeepMind's AlphaFold work, building an AI-first drug discovery engine. Comparable as a broad incumbent pursuing AI-driven drug discovery with a foundation-model + lab integration strategy, though at much larger scale and with a narrower focus on therapeutics.

Emerging players

• Cradle Bio: Cradle applies generative AI to protein engineering and biologics design. Comparable to Lila's generative-biology and antibody workflows, though with a narrower focus on proteins rather than Lila's broader multi-domain scope.
• Kebotix: Kebotix combines AI with self-driving laboratories for materials and chemicals discovery. Comparable as an emerging AI+robotics-for-materials player, though smaller in scale and capital base than Lila.

Others

• Cellares: Cellares builds automated, high-throughput cell therapy manufacturing systems. Adjacent — not a direct competitor — but its lab-automation technology and former SVP of R&D (Daniele Malleo, now at Lila) represent overlap in the autonomous lab infrastructure and bioprocessing stack that Lila's AISF relies on.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/LilaSciences
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/lila-sciences

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles36 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors25 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Lila Sciences