Cradle

What Cradle does

Cradle is a Dutch-headquartered AI biotech company that sells a generative AI software platform for protein engineering, targeting therapeutic and industrial protein R&D teams. Its platform combines proprietary protein language models with multi-property supervised predictors and an automated ML framework (CRADLE-1) to generate, score, and optimize novel protein sequences, claiming 2-12x faster development timelines across 50+ programs in modalities including antibodies, enzymes, peptides, vaccines, and gene-editing systems. A structural differentiator is Cradle's in-house Amsterdam wet lab, which runs systematic A/B testing of ML model iterations across dozens of assays to validate and continuously improve default models — a closed-loop design that most in-silico protein design competitors lack.

The business model is an annual software subscription with quote-based pricing: a Standard tier priced per active project and an Enterprise tier scaled across multiple programs and divisions, both including unlimited users, unlimited data and storage, compute, full API access, and full IP retention with no royalties or milestone fees. An application-based Academic tier serves not-for-profit research. Distribution is primarily a direct enterprise field-sales motion supported by a 'Talk to sales' funnel, a documentation portal, and an API for computational teams; a separate channel exists for CRO/service-provider partnerships. Customer concentration sits in top-tier biopharma and industrial biotech, with 6-8 of the top 25 global pharma companies as customers (Bayer, Lundbeck, Novo Nordisk, J&J, Novozymes/Novonesis, Grifols, argenx, AbbVie), plus industrial customers including Corteva and IFF. Cradle has offices in Amsterdam (HQ + wet lab), Zurich (ML engineering), and Cambridge, MA (US commercial), and is SOC 2 Type II certified and GDPR-compliant with EU data residency.

Name

Cradle

Legal name

Cradle

Website

https://cradle.bio

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Cradle is an Amsterdam-based AI biotech whose generative protein engineering platform uses proprietary ML models and an in-house wet lab to design antibodies, enzymes, peptides, and vaccines for top-25 global pharma and industrial biotech R&D teams.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

AI Protein Engineering

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)

akta.pro primary industry

Antibody Discovery & Engineering Platforms (display tech, bispecifics, Fc engineering) (HLAAAIAB)

Keywords

• AI protein engineering
• Generative protein design
• Antibody optimization software
• Enzyme engineering platform
• Computational drug discovery

Headquarters

HQ city

Delft

HQ country

Netherlands

HQ region

Europe

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Annual software subscription license: One annual software license per active project (Standard tier) or scaled across multiple projects and divisions (Enterprise tier); includes unlimited users, unlimited data upload and storage, compute and infrastructure, expert technical support. No royalties, milestone payments, or hidden fees. Customers retain full IP ownership of sequences and data.
2. Academic program licensing: Tailored not-for-profit research licensing with limited availability; application-based enrollment separate from commercial tiers.
3. Service provider / CRO partnerships: Partnership arrangements for CROs or service providers wishing to use or deploy Cradle as part of their service offering (contact-based pricing).

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Cradle is a generative AI software company that builds and sells a protein engineering platform used by biopharma and industrial biotechnology R&D teams to design, score, and optimize protein sequences (antibodies, enzymes, peptides, and vaccines). The platform combines proprietary machine learning models, protein language models with evotuning, and an in-house wet lab for continuous model validation. Customers access the software via a web application and REST API under annual subscription licenses.

Product overview

Cradle offers a single unified AI software platform for protein engineering, organized as a platform-plus-modules architecture. The core Cradle Platform (web UI + REST API) delivers generative AI protein design, supervised predictors, multi-property optimization, and lab-in-the-loop iteration. The core platform is extended by four modality modules (Cradle Antibody, Cradle Enzyme, Cradle Peptide, and Cradle Vaccine modules) and two industry solutions (Cradle for Biopharma and Cradle for Industrial Bio), plus a Cradle Academic Program. Three licensing tiers (Cradle Standard, Cradle Enterprise, Cradle Academic) package access to the platform, all including full API access, unlimited users/data, and no royalty fees. Underpinning the platform is the in-house Cradle Wet Lab in Amsterdam, which validates models and feeds training data, and the proprietary CRADLE-1 automated ML framework for protein lead optimization.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• CRADLE-1: Automated machine-learning framework for protein lead optimization, validated across antibodies, enzymes, peptides, vaccines, and gene-editing systems.

Products and services

• Cradle Platform

Quantifiable outcome

• 2-12x faster protein R&D timelines across 50+ programs
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

AI capability7 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

16 partnerships are on record, tiered flagship strategic partner, strategic advisor, core strategic partner, strategic partner, core technology vendor, standard infrastructure vendor, flagship infrastructure provider, lab automation partner and lab equipment vendor.

• H. Lundbeck A/Sflagship strategic partnerStrategic or Co-development Partner · 3 June 2026Partnership announced June 3, 2026 (Valby, Denmark & Amsterdam) to discover and optimize biotherapeutics for brain disorders. Cradle's AI-powered protein design platform will initially be deployed on two antibody programs targeting CNS diseases. The partnership powers Lundbeck's first end-to-end AI-guided protein engineering workflow.
• Marcus Schindler (former CSO, Novo Nordisk)strategic advisorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 3 March 2026Joined Cradle's advisory board announced March 3, 2026. As former Chief Scientific Officer at Novo Nordisk, Schindler will leverage his experience to help integrate AI solutions into complex drug discovery workflows and accelerate Cradle's scientific impact and industry adoption.
• Bayerflagship strategic partnerStrategic or Co-development Partner · 7 January 2026Three-year strategic collaboration announced January 7, 2026 (Berlin/Amsterdam/Zurich) to deploy Cradle's generative AI software platform for protein engineering within Bayer's pharmaceutical R&D workflows. Bayer integrated the platform to enhance lead generation and optimization across its therapeutic antibody pipeline, reducing optimization cycles and improving molecular potency, safety, and manufacturability. Collaboration includes a joint machine learning research project. Bayer selected Cradle from among several vendors following a successful proof of concept. Bayer later committed to strategic AI partnerships including Cradle as part of its Pharma Media Day 2026 strategy.
• Johnson & Johnsoncore strategic partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration to accelerate research using Generative AI for Protein Engineering. Attracted as a major customer leveraging Cradle's protein design technology.
• Novozymes (now Novonesis)core strategic partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration to accelerate research using Generative AI for Protein Engineering; one of the major customers attracted by Cradle's technology. Novozymes' CSO (now Novonesis) is quoted on the Cradle website: 'Through our partnership with Cradle, we are embedding advanced AI directly into how we innovate, enabling our teams to shorten development time and bring real-world biosolutions faster to market.'
• Grifolsstrategic partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration to accelerate research using Generative AI for Protein Engineering (alongside Johnson & Johnson and Novozymes).
• Novo Nordiskflagship strategic partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrategic partnership to develop therapeutics using Cradle's AI-powered protein engineering platform. Cited as one of six top-25 pharma customers (December 2025). The former CSO of Novo Nordisk (Marcus Schindler) joined Cradle's advisory board in March 2026.
• Twist Biosciencecore technology vendorTechnology or IntegrationCradle's wet lab uses Twist Bioscience as its DNA synthesis provider for high-throughput protein engineering. Designs from the ML team are ordered as DNA from Twist, then transformed into E. coli for sequencing QC, expression, and protein purification.
• Benchlingcore technology vendorTechnology or IntegrationSelected as Cradle's Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) platform for sample tracking, data management, and entity-level computed fields powering nested sample traceability. Used across the entire wet lab workflow from DNA assembly to assay results.
• WorkOSstandard infrastructure vendorTechnology or IntegrationCradle uses WorkOS to provide seamless Single Sign-On (SSO) capabilities, allowing workspace administrators to set up SAML or OpenID Connect (OIDC) integrations with existing Identity Providers.
• Google Cloud Platformflagship infrastructure providerTechnology or IntegrationCradle's production infrastructure is built on Google Cloud Platform; all customer data is encrypted and stored in Google Cloud data centers in the Netherlands (europe-west4 region) and replicated across the EU region. Uses Google Cloud Load Balancers, Traefik reverse proxy, Google Workload Identity Federation, and Google's Privileged Access Manager.
• Vantastandard infrastructure vendorTechnology or IntegrationCradle uses Vanta's security and compliance automation platform to continuously monitor security controls and maintain SOC 2 Type II and broader compliance. Trust Center hosted at app.eu.vanta.com/cradle/trust.
• LAB Serviceslab automation partnerImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerCo-presented Cradle's webinar on ML-driven protein engineering lab automation. Partnered with Cradle to design and build the ML-ready workcell powering high-throughput protein engineering in the Amsterdam lab.
• BlueCatBio (BlueWasher)lab equipment vendorTechnology or IntegrationCradle uses the BlueCatBio BlueWasher to accelerate purification of His-tagged proteins in their high-throughput workflow (referenced in Cradle's protein tags blog post).
• UniteLabslab automation partnerTechnology or IntegrationCradle plans to use UniteLabs' Data Warehouse to improve variant lookup and inventory management as part of its lab automation roadmap (mentioned in the sample tracking blog post).
• Formulatrix (Mantis liquid handler)lab equipment vendorTechnology or IntegrationCradle's wet lab uses the Formulatrix Mantis, a high-precision nanoliter dispensing system, to accurately deliver extremely small volumes of reagents across multiple plates.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Insilico Medicine: AI-driven drug discovery company combining generative chemistry, target discovery, and predictive biology. Competes with Cradle for biopharma R&D budgets and has a similarly broad pharma partnership footprint, though stronger emphasis on small molecules and end-to-end IND-enabling pipelines.
• Absci: Generative AI drug creation company combining zero-shot generative AI models for antibodies with a high-throughput wet lab for validation. Closely comparable in lab-in-the-loop architecture and antibody focus, with additional internal cell-line and manufacturing capabilities.
• Generate Biomedicines: Generative biology platform designing novel protein therapeutics across modalities. Direct competitor in AI-driven protein design for biopharma, with comparable 'generative biology' positioning and a similar top-pharma partnership model.
• Profluent Bio: AI-first protein engineering company leveraging large protein language models to design novel protein sequences. Closely comparable in core technology (protein language models, sequence generation) and target customer segments, including therapeutics and industrial applications.

Broad incumbents

• Recursion Pharmaceuticals: AI-driven drug discovery company combining high-throughput biology, automation, and machine learning to discover and develop therapeutics. Adjacent in lab-in-the-loop AI-bio architecture, with strategic pharma partnerships and a broader pipeline model.
• Ginkgo Bioworks: Large synthetic biology platform company offering organism engineering, enzyme development, and biologics services. Comparable in industrial bio / enzyme engineering focus and large-pharma customer base, though broader scope and service-led model.
• Isomorphic Labs: Alphabet-backed drug discovery company founded by DeepMind's Alphafold team, applying AI to protein structure prediction, protein design, and small-molecule discovery. Most direct strategic competitor in AI protein design, with substantially greater capital and infrastructure resources than Cradle.

Emerging players

• EvolutionaryScale: AI research company developing frontier protein language models (e.g., ESM3) for protein design, founded by former Meta AI researchers. Direct overlap in core ML technology and protein design use cases, with a research-forward go-to-market and emerging enterprise offerings.
• Menten AI: AI protein design company focused on de novo enzyme and therapeutic protein engineering, with a wet-lab validation component. Overlaps with Cradle in enzyme and peptide modalities and serves a similar mix of biopharma and industrial biotech customers.

Regional players

• Inari Agriculture: Seed technology company using AI and gene editing to design crop performance. Comparable in agricultural bio / seed engineering use case (overlap with Cradle's Corteva Catalyst customer) and AI-driven biological design, though focused exclusively on agriculture rather than therapeutics/industrial bio.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cradlebio
• Xx.com/cradlebio

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors3 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 Cradle