Octant Bio
Octant Bio is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing the Octant Navigator—an integrated Generative Biology, Chemistry, and AI drug-discovery platform targeting protein misfolding diseases—with lead asset OCT-980 in Phase 1 for RHO-adRP retinitis pigmentosa.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2017
- HeadquartersLos Angeles, United States
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Octant Bio does
Octant Bio, Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company founded in 2017 and headquartered in Emeryville, California, that engineers small-molecule therapeutics against complex cellular mechanisms of disease using an integrated discovery platform. The company's core product, the Octant Navigator, combines three interlocking modules — Generative Biology (RNA-barcoded mammalian synthetic biology toolkits that build cellular sensors for signaling, trafficking, stability, and interaction pathways), Generative Chemistry (nano-scale automated acoustic synthesis producing thousands of analogs per cycle), and Generative AI/ML — into a closed weekly Design-Build-Test-Learn loop augmented by Hypatia robotic automation and Deep Mutational Scanning datasets that map every amino-acid variant of a target protein. The company's internal pipeline spans rare genetic disease (lead clinical asset OCT-980, an oral small-molecule corrector for rhodopsin-associated autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa, with Phase 1a healthy-volunteer dosing initiated in Q1 2026 under NCT07408232), Fabry disease, undisclosed neurodegeneration, p53-mutant cancers, HPV-induced cancers (with the Gates Foundation), MC4R metabolism, and undisclosed immunology targets. Its value proposition centers on drugging multi-mutation, mechanism-driven diseases that traditional single-target binding approaches have failed to address.
Octant's business model is pre-commercial and predicated on three funding pillars. Venture equity financing has totaled approximately $115M across a 2017 seed, a $30M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz in May 2020, and an $80M Series B led by Catalio Capital Management in April 2022 with Bristol Myers Squibb participation. Strategic pharma research collaborations — most notably with Bristol Myers Squibb (initial 2022 deal, renewed November 12, 2025 for neurodegenerative diseases) — provide research funding, milestone payments, and potential downstream royalties tied to partnered programs. Non-dilutive grant funding supplements this with $4.9M from the Gates Foundation (HPV-Driven Cancer Therapeutics Program, June 11, 2025) and ARPA-H Collaborative AI Initiative funding (October 23, 2024), plus a Foundation Fighting Blindness clinical collaboration (April 2026). The company is privately held by Andreessen Horowitz, Catalio Capital Management, Bristol Myers Squibb, and a syndicate including 50Y, Allen, 8VC, NanoDimension, SV Angel, Refactor, Ulu Ventures, and Lux Capital.
Go-to-market is structured as an enterprise pharma partnership motion: high-touch business development secures multi-year research collaborations and co-development agreements, supplemented by visibility at major investor and scientific conferences (Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, RBC, Canaccord Genuity, Stanford Drug Discovery Symposium, Mutational Scanning Symposium) and a science-content and apprenticeship-driven employer brand that supports talent acquisition. Pricing is not publicly disclosed; commercial value is realized through deal economics with pharma partners and future clinical-pipeline milestones rather than unit sales.
Octant Bio firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Octant Bio
- Legal name
- Octant, Inc.
- Website
- https://octant.bio
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2017
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Short description
- Octant Bio is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing the Octant Navigator—an integrated Generative Biology, Chemistry, and AI drug-discovery platform targeting protein misfolding diseases—with lead asset OCT-980 in Phase 1 for RHO-adRP retinitis pigmentosa.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Octant Bio industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Drug Discovery Platform / Biopharmaceuticals
- NAICS
- Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Pharmaceutical and Medicine Manufacturing (3254), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417)
- SIC
- Medicinal Chemicals & Botanical Products (2833)
- akta.pro primary industry
- AI/ML Platforms for Drug Discovery & Experiment Optimization (HLAGAJAO)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Target Identification & Validation Platforms (omics-driven, chemoproteomics, genetic validation) (HLAAAIAI), Lead Optimization & Preclinical Candidate Selection (HLAIALAB), Cheminformatics & Molecular Modeling / CADD (HLAGAJAE)
Keywords
Where Octant Bio is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Los Angeles
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Octant Bio business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Strategic pharma research collaborations: Research collaboration agreements with large pharmaceutical partners such as Bristol Myers Squibb (e.g., 2022 collaboration; November 12, 2025 collaboration to discover novel small molecules for neurodegenerative diseases). Typically involve upfront/research funding, milestone payments, and potential downstream royalties or licensing economics tied to partnered programs.
- Venture equity financing: Series B financing of $80M led by Catalio Capital Management in April 2022 with participation from Bristol Myers Squibb and other investors (Andreessen Horowitz, 50Y, Allen, 8VC, NanoDimension, SV Angel, Refactor, Ulu, Lux). Pre-revenue therapeutics company; primary funding mechanism to date.
- Non-dilutive grant funding: Targeted grant funding supporting specific programs — e.g., $4.9M grant from the Gates Foundation to launch the HPV-Driven Cancer Therapeutics Program (June 11, 2025), and ARPA-H funding for a Collaborative AI Initiative to advance drug discovery and prevent side effects (October 23, 2024).
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Other | Multi-year contract | Quote-based / Not publicly disclosed — pre-commercial therapeutics pipeline with pharma research collaborations |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels6 records
Octant Bio product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Octant Bio operates the Octant Navigator, an integrated drug-discovery platform that combines Generative Biology (RNA-barcoded mammalian synthetic biology cell sensors), Generative Chemistry (nano-scale automated synthesis), and Generative AI in a weekly Design-Build-Test-Learn cycle to engineer small molecule drugs that modulate cellular mechanisms of disease. The company applies Deep Mutational Scanning to map every amino-acid variant of target proteins and currently sells its discovery capabilities via research collaborations with pharmaceutical partners (e.g., Bristol Myers Squibb), non-dilutive grants (Gates Foundation, ARPA-H), and an internal clinical pipeline led by OCT-980 (an oral small molecule corrector for RHO-adRP retinitis pigmentosa now in Phase 1a).
Product overview
Octant Bio offers a single integrated drug-discovery platform — the Octant Navigator — composed of three interlocking modules (Generative Biology, Generative Chemistry, and Generative AI) plus platform capabilities such as Deep Mutational Scanning (DMS), HT-SAR direct-to-biology screening, and the Hypatia robotic drug hunter, that together drive iterative weekly design–build–test–learn cycles on cellular mechanisms. Internal programs include the lead clinical candidate OCT-980 (an oral small-molecule corrector for RHO-associated autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa, Phase 1a initiated Q1 2026), along with discovery programs in Fabry disease, undisclosed neurodegeneration, p53-mutant cancers, HPV-induced cancers (Gates Foundation collaboration), MC4R metabolism, and undisclosed targets.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Octant Navigator: Proprietary next-generation drug discovery platform that integrates Generative Biology, Generative Chemistry, and Generative AI for design, build, test, learn iterations across chemistry and biology.
Products and services
- Octant Navigator Next-generation drug discovery platform integrating Generative Biology, Generative Chemistry, and Generative AI in iterative design–build–test–learn loops to engineer small molecules that modulate cellular mechanisms driving disease, rather than only binding isolated target proteins.
- OCT-980 First-in-disease oral small molecule corrector designed to correct protein misfolding caused by rhodopsin (RHO) gene mutations, the root cause of RHO-associated autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa (adRP). In Phase 1a clinical testing as of Q1 2026 with an integrated Phase 1/2 study planned.
- Pharma research collaboration and co-development services Strategic research collaboration agreements with large pharmaceutical partners (notably Bristol Myers Squibb, originally announced 2022 and expanded November 12, 2025 for neurodegenerative diseases) that apply the Octant Navigator platform to discover novel small molecules, typically involving upfront/research funding, milestone payments, and potential downstream royalties or licensing economics.
Quantifiable outcome
- Iteratively built and screened 250,000+ custom compounds direct-to-biology in the RHO-adRP program, yielding leads that rescue the most prevalent clinically-relevant rhodopsin mutations, are orally bioavailable, and cross the blood-retinal barrier.
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Octant Bio
Customer profileNamed customers2 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Octant Bio technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability9 records
Feature7 records
Octant Bio partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Four partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship and minor.
- Foundation Fighting BlindnesscoreCollaboration announced April 21–22, 2026 to expand the Uni-Rare Natural History Study with a new RHO cohort, supporting the OCT-980 / RHO-adRP program and broader understanding of rhodopsin mutation disease progression.
- Bristol Myers SquibbflagshipResearch collaboration announced November 12, 2025 to discover novel small molecules for neurodegenerative diseases. Builds on the original 2022 Octant–BMS drug-discovery partnership and joint work presented at Stanford Drug Discovery Symposium 2024 on a Deep Mutational Scan of TYK2.
- Gates FoundationcorePartner on Octant's HPV-induced cancers program (Hit ID stage in pipeline) and funder via a $4.9M grant awarded June 11, 2025 to launch the HPV-Driven Cancer Therapeutics Program.
- Ginkgo BioworksminorEstablished a Bay Area coronavirus test processing facility in December 2020 leveraging Octant's SwabSeq technology; partnership was a non-pharma operational collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Scale indicators8 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Octant Bio competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Insitro: Insitro is a clinical-stage AI/ML-driven drug discovery company combining induced pluripotent stem cell biology, high-throughput genetics, and machine learning to engineer small molecule and genetic medicines. Highly comparable to Octant's Navigator approach of integrating high-throughput biology, chemistry, and ML in iterative discovery loops.
- Schrödinger: Schrödinger combines physics-based computational chemistry, ML, and a co-discovery model with pharma partners to develop small molecule therapeutics. Directly comparable to Octant's Generative Chemistry and Generative AI capabilities and its pharma-partnered business model.
- Exscientia: Exscientia is an AI-native pharma using generative design and automated chemistry to advance small molecule candidates, with multiple clinical-stage programs and major pharma partnerships. Comparable to Octant as a direct AI/chemistry platform competitor.
- Recursion Pharmaceuticals: Recursion operates one of the largest AI-driven biology and chemistry platforms, using high-throughput automated wet-lab experiments and ML to discover small molecules across multiple therapeutic areas with several clinical-stage assets. Directly comparable to Octant on platform model, scale, and clinical-stage status.
- Relay Therapeutics: Relay Therapeutics combines computational methods with structural biology and chemistry to design precision medicines against validated targets, with multiple clinical-stage assets. SAB member Mark Murcko is a Relay founder and the platform emphasis on motion-based drug design overlaps with Octant's mechanism-based cellular screening.
- Eikon Therapeutics: Eikon uses live-cell high-throughput imaging combined with AI/ML to track protein dynamics in living cells for drug discovery. Comparable to Octant on the premise of generating large-scale biological datasets with ML to discover mechanistically novel small molecules.
Broad incumbents
- Ginkgo Bioworks: Ginkgo Bioworks operates a broad horizontal synthetic biology and cell programming platform serving applications from biomanufacturing to biosecurity (NYSE: DNA). Ginkgo CEO Jason Kelly sits on Octant's board, and the companies share an Emeryville-Bay Area cluster and synthetic biology heritage.
Emerging players
- Atomwise: Atomwise applies deep learning to structure-based small molecule design and has multiple pharma partnerships. Comparable to Octant on AI-driven small molecule discovery but smaller scale and less integrated wet-lab automation.
- Isomorphic Labs: Isomorphic Labs is Alphabet/DeepMind's commercial AI drug discovery entity building an integrated computational biology and chemistry platform. Comparable to Octant as an AI-native discovery platform with pharma partnerships (Novartis, Lilly) but operating at vastly greater capital scale.
- Dewpoint Therapeutics: Dewpoint develops small molecule drugs targeting biomolecular condensates, with SAB founder Mark Murcko. Partial overlap with Octant on mechanism-based discovery and on shared scientific leadership network.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Octant Bio social profiles
Digital presenceOctant Bio financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Octant Bio leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles21 records
Octant Bio funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds3 records
Investors15 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Octant Bio M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Octant Bio
What does Octant Bio do?
Octant Bio operates the Octant Navigator, an integrated drug-discovery platform that combines Generative Biology (RNA-barcoded mammalian synthetic biology cell sensors), Generative Chemistry (nano-scale automated synthesis), and Generative AI in a weekly Design-Build-Test-Learn cycle to engineer small molecule drugs that modulate cellular mechanisms of disease. The company applies Deep Mutational Scanning to map every amino-acid variant of target proteins and currently sells its discovery capabilities via research collaborations with pharmaceutical partners (e.g., Bristol Myers Squibb), non-dilutive grants (Gates Foundation, ARPA-H), and an internal clinical pipeline led by OCT-980 (an oral small molecule corrector for RHO-adRP retinitis pigmentosa now in Phase 1a).
Is Octant Bio a public or private company?
Octant Bio is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Octant Bio founded?
Octant Bio was founded in 2017. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is Octant Bio based?
Octant Bio is headquartered in Los Angeles, United States, in the North America region.
How does Octant Bio make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Strategic pharma research collaborations are the primary driver. The others are venture equity financing and non-dilutive grant funding.
Who are Octant Bio's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Insitro, Schrödinger, Exscientia, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Relay Therapeutics and Eikon Therapeutics. Ginkgo Bioworks is listed as a broad incumbent. Emerging players are Atomwise, Isomorphic Labs and Dewpoint Therapeutics.
Does Octant Bio have an API?
No public API is recorded for Octant Bio.
What industry is Octant Bio in?
Octant Bio's product category is Drug Discovery Platform / Biopharmaceuticals. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HLAGAJAO, AI/ML Platforms for Drug Discovery & Experiment Optimization, with a secondary code of HLAAAIAI, Target Identification & Validation Platforms (omics-driven, chemoproteomics, genetic validation). Its NAICS code is 541714 and its SIC code is 2833.