What Relation Therapeutics does

Relation Therapeutics is a London-based biotechnology company founded in January 2020 that develops its Lab-in-the-Loop platform, an integrated system combining single-cell and spatial multi-omics from patient tissue, perturbational functional assays, and active-graph machine learning to identify and validate therapeutic targets with genetic evidence before they enter expensive clinical development. Its proprietary Osteomics asset is described as the world's largest functional single-cell bone atlas, generated from patient-derived samples and deeply characterized across genomics, proteomics, imaging and clinical phenotype data, and underpins the company's primary indication in osteoporosis alongside expanding programs in immunology/atopic disease (with Novartis) and fibrosis/osteoarthritis (with GSK). The company serves large pharmaceutical partners through milestone-based strategic collaborations structured with upfront payments, R&D funding and downstream royalties, exemplified by the December 2025 Novartis deal ($55M upfront, up to $1.7B in milestones) and the November 2024 GSK collaborations ($15M equity, up to $300M). A January 2026 collaboration with Deerfield Management adds a complementary company-formation model in which Relation and Deerfield will create new ventures around discovered targets.

The business is pre-revenue with no approved products; total capital raised is approximately $86M across a $25M seed (June 2022, co-led by DCVC and Magnetic Ventures), a $35M seed-2 (March 2024, co-led by DCVC and NVentures) and a further $26M (December 2025, with Novartis participating). Compute infrastructure is anchored by preferred access to NVIDIA's Cambridge-1 supercomputer, and the team is led by a CEO (David Roblin) with 11 prior approved medicines across Pfizer, Summit and the Francis Crick Institute, a CTO (Lindsay Edwards) who founded GSK's first Data Science group, and a President of Drug Discovery (Dave Powell) previously CSO at LifeArc.

Name

Relation Therapeutics

Legal name

Relation Therapeutics Limited

Website

https://relationrx.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Relation Therapeutics is a London-based biotech that uses its Lab-in-the-Loop platform — combining single-cell multi-omics from patient tissue with active-graph machine learning — to discover and validate genetically-supported drug targets for osteoporosis, immunology and metabolic disease, partnering with large pharma on milestone-based collaborations.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

AI Drug Discovery / Biopharma R&D Platform

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (54171), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

AI/ML-Enabled Biologic Discovery Platforms (computational design, in silico screening) (HLAAAIAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Single-Cell & Spatial Omics Discovery Platforms (target ID/validation, functional profiling) (HLAAAIAF), Target Identification & Validation Platforms (omics-driven, chemoproteomics, genetic validation) (HLAAAIAI), Bioinformatics, Multi-Omics Data Analysis & Interpretation Services (HLAGANAI), AI/ML Platforms for Drug Discovery & Experiment Optimization (HLAGAJAO), Multi-Omics Precision Medicine Platforms (genomics/proteomics/metabolomics) (HLAAANAF)

Keywords

• AI drug discovery
• Single-cell multi-omics
• Target identification platform
• Biotechnology drug development
• Machine learning drug discovery

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Strategic Pharma Partnerships: Relation generates revenue through milestone-based collaboration agreements with pharmaceutical companies. Partners pay upfront fees, research funding, and development milestones, with potential royalty payments on net sales of approved products. Example: Novartis partnership includes $55M upfront and up to $1.7B in milestone payments plus tiered royalties.
2. Technology Platform Licensing: The company leverages its AI-powered drug discovery platform to identify and validate therapeutic targets for partners, generating revenue through co-development arrangements and target validation services.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Relation Therapeutics operates an AI-powered Lab-in-the-Loop drug discovery platform that integrates single-cell multi-omics analysis directly from patient tissue, functional assays, and machine learning to identify and validate therapeutic targets. The platform is anchored by Osteomics, the world's largest functional single-cell bone atlas, and is commercialized through milestone-based strategic partnerships with large pharmaceutical companies. The company focuses on bone disease (osteoporosis), immunology/atopic diseases, and metabolic disease, leveraging proprietary patient-derived data and high-performance compute infrastructure.

Product overview

Relation Therapeutics operates as an end-to-end biotech developing transformational medicines with technology at its core. The company's primary offering is the Lab-in-the-Loop Platform—an AI-powered drug discovery system that combines machine learning with multi-omic data from patient tissue to identify and validate therapeutic targets. This platform is underpinned by Osteomics, the world's largest functional single-cell bone atlas, and integrates single-cell analysis, genomics, spatial transcriptomics, and computational approaches. The company focuses on bone disease (osteoporosis), immunology, and metabolic diseases, with programs spanning from target identification through clinical translation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Lab-in-the-Loop Platform AI-powered drug discovery platform that seamlessly integrates single-cell multi-omics analysis, functional assays, and machine learning to identify causal genes and validate therapeutic mechanisms for pharmaceutical partners. Licensed to large pharma companies through milestone-based strategic collaborations.
• Osteomics Proprietary functional single-cell bone atlas developed from patient-derived samples, providing deeply characterized single-cell, spatial omics, imaging, genomics, proteomics, and clinical phenotype data to enable target identification for osteoporosis and bone-related diseases.
• Multi-Omic Patient Data Integration Service Technology service that generates and analyzes human genetics and proprietary omics data directly from patient tissue to understand genetic basis of clinical phenotypes and build rich maps of disease biology for novel target discovery, offered as part of strategic collaborations with pharmaceutical partners.

Quantifiable outcome

• Drug targets with genetic validation are 2.6 times more likely to succeed in clinical trials
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability6 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship and minor.

• GenomicscoreTechnology or Integration · 1 June 2026Relation uses Genomics' Mystra AI platform, a conversational AI platform for drug target discovery and validation using large-scale human genetics data. Mystra leverages what Genomics describes as the world's largest genotype-phenotype database compiled from more than 45,000 genome-wide association studies.
• Deerfield ManagementcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 7 January 2026Strategic collaboration to advance novel therapeutics, with plans to form new companies from discovered drug targets. Combines Relation's target discovery capabilities with Deerfield's development and investment expertise.
• NovartisflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 9 December 2025Strategic collaboration to discover and develop novel therapeutic targets for atopic diseases. Novartis pays $55M upfront for global development and commercialization rights, with Relation eligible for up to $1.7B in milestone payments plus tiered royalties on net sales. Relation contributes its AI-powered Lab-in-the-Loop platform using multi-omic patient-derived data to generate functional cell atlases for target identification and validation.
• GSKflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 November 2024Two strategic collaborations with GSK to advance therapeutics for fibrotic diseases and osteoarthritis, including $15M equity investment. The partnerships leverage Relation's AI platform and disease understanding for target identification across neurodegeneration, fibrosis, and RNA biology.
• NVIDIAcoreTechnology or Integration · 1 March 2022NVIDIA provides computational infrastructure including access to Cambridge-1, the UK's most powerful supercomputer, to power Relation's digital biology breakthroughs and AI-driven drug discovery workflows.
• Bill & Melinda Gates FoundationminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2020Grant awarded in September 2020 to support coalition work with Yoshua Bengio, Mila, and Scripps Research to identify COVID-19 therapeutic candidates.
• MilaminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2020Coalition partner in COVID-19 therapeutic candidate identification alongside Relation, Yoshua Bengio, and Scripps Research, supported by Gates Foundation grant.
• Scripps ResearchminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2020Coalition partner in COVID-19 therapeutic candidate identification alongside Relation, Yoshua Bengio, and Mila, supported by Gates Foundation grant.
• Garvan Institute of Medical ResearchminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration with hospitals and partners across the UK and Australia for patient sample collection supporting the Osteomics bone atlas and other programs.
• Kyoto UniversityminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic collaboration for research partnerships and knowledge sharing in drug discovery and multi-omic technologies.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Recursion Pharmaceuticals: Recursion is a clinical-stage AI-driven drug discovery company combining high-throughput biology, machine learning, and multi-omic data. It directly competes with Relation in using ML-driven platforms to identify and validate novel therapeutic targets for large pharma partners.
• Insitro: Insitro combines machine learning with high-throughput biology and patient-derived data to discover and develop therapeutics. Its platform model of licensing targets and partnering with pharma closely mirrors Relation's Lab-in-the-Loop approach.
• Isomorphic Labs: Alphabet-backed Isomorphic Labs applies AI and computational methods to drug discovery, with major pharma partnerships (Novartis, Eli Lilly). It competes with Relation for AI-native drug discovery mandates from top-tier pharma.
• Exscientia: Exscientia is an AI-driven precision medicine company applying AI to small molecule drug design and partnered pharma collaborations. It is a comparable AI-native biotech pursuing platform-based pharma partnerships.
• BenevolentAI: BenevolentAI uses AI and knowledge graphs to identify novel drug targets and develop treatments. Its focus on graph-based ML for target discovery aligns closely with Relation's active-graph machine learning approach.

Broad incumbents

• Schrödinger: Schrödinger provides computational chemistry and physics-based simulation software used across drug discovery. It is a broader, more established player operating in the same computational drug discovery category as Relation's platform.

Emerging players

• Atomwise: Atomwise uses AI for small molecule design and has pharma collaborations. It overlaps with Relation in applying ML to drug discovery but is less focused on multi-omic patient-derived target identification.
• Owkin: Owkin applies AI to multi-omic patient data for drug discovery and clinical research. It overlaps with Relation's use of multi-omics and ML but focuses more on federated learning and clinical trial optimization.
• Absci: Absci combines generative AI with wet-lab validation for biologic drug creation. Its zero-shot wet-lab validation approach is thematically comparable to Relation's lab-in-the-loop philosophy.
• Crush Bio (formerly Cradle): Cradle uses generative AI for protein engineering. While focused on biologics design rather than target discovery, it is an adjacent AI-driven biotech using ML across wet and dry lab workflows similar to Relation's Lab-in-the-Loop.

Market position

Strengths1 record

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights1 record

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/RelationRx
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/relation-therapeutics/?originalSubdomain=uk

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors9 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 Relation Therapeutics