OPTIC
BIOPTIC is an AI-native drug discovery company combining proprietary screening models (B1, B2, B3) with an autonomous drug asset scouting agent that screens 40B+ compounds in minutes. It serves pharma, biotech, BD&L teams, and academic institutions via subscription, collaboration, and white-label licensing models.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2022
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What OPTIC does
BIOPTIC (Optic Inc.) is a San Francisco-based, AI-native drug discovery company founded in 2021 that has built a unified platform combining three proprietary scientific AI models — B1 (a SMILES-based RoBERTa transformer for ligand-based virtual screening), B2 (a Flamingo-inspired sequence-based hit identification model), and B3 (a few-shot ADME prediction module built on Gemini) — with an autonomous Bioptic Agent for multilingual drug asset scouting. The platform screens ultra-large chemical libraries (40 billion+ compounds) in under 2.5 minutes with 100% recall at an estimated $5 per screen, and is validated through peer-reviewed publications in the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling (LRRK2/Parkinson's, 14 confirmed binders, best Kd = 110 nM) and Cell Chemical Biology (Miro1/Friedreich's Ataxia, 62 novel compounds from a 3.2B library). BIOPTIC also advances its own internal and co-owned drug pipeline, including OPT-LR42 (Parkinson's/LRRK2), OPT-TN65 (Obesity/TNIK), and OPT-FL95 (Solid Tumors/VEGFR3), and contributes community infrastructure such as the PLUMBER benchmark (1.8M data points) released on Polaris.
The company serves pharmaceutical and biotech companies, biotech consultancies, corporate venture arms, BD&L teams, and academic institutions. Key partners include Vindur Tx ($17.5M cancer collaboration), Oncobox (co-developed VEGFR3 program), eMolecules (20M+ compound library integration), Mechanica (white-label venture creation), and Stanford University (Cell Chemical Biology collaboration). The technology has earned two gold medals at major AI competitions — CAFA 5 Protein Function Prediction (2023) and the BELKA Challenge at NeurIPS 2024 — and an AAAI 2026 award for the agentic due diligence paper; on the proprietary drug asset scouting benchmark, Bioptic Agent reaches 79.7% F1, materially ahead of Claude Opus 4.6 (56.2%), Gemini 3 Pro (50.6%), and GPT-5.2 Pro (46.6%).
BIOPTIC operates a hybrid revenue model combining SaaS subscription access with usage-based screening, fixed-sum collaboration deals, and white-label/OEM licensing for biotech consultancies. The company is entirely bootstrapped with no external venture capital and has reached $19.9M ARR with a $59.7M valuation. Distribution combines direct enterprise field sales, a self-serve pipeline platform (app.bioptic.io), integration partnerships, and white-label channels, while marketing relies heavily on peer-reviewed publications, conference presence (BIO, JPM Healthcare, NeurIPS, ASCO, SDDS), and industry association membership (Alliance for AI in Healthcare).
OPTIC firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- OPTIC
- Legal name
- OPTIC, INC.
- Website
- https://bioptic.io
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2022
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- BIOPTIC is an AI-native drug discovery company combining proprietary screening models (B1, B2, B3) with an autonomous drug asset scouting agent that screens 40B+ compounds in minutes. It serves pharma, biotech, BD&L teams, and academic institutions via subscription, collaboration, and white-label licensing models.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
OPTIC industry classification
Industry- Product category
- AI Drug Discovery Platform
- NAICS
- Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing (334516)
- SIC
- Laboratory Analytical Instruments (3826), Pharmaceutical Preparations (2834)
- akta.pro primary industry
- AI/ML Platforms for Drug Discovery & Experiment Optimization (HLAGAJAO)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- AI/ML-Enabled Biologic Discovery Platforms (computational design, in silico screening) (HLAAAIAE)
Keywords
Where OPTIC is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
OPTIC business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- SaaS Platform Access (Subscription + Usage): AI drug discovery platform provided as a service. Customers pay for platform access and usage of screening capabilities. Revenue appears to be subscription-based with usage components, as evidenced by recurring billing language in terms of service.
- Collaboration Deals: Fixed-sum collaboration payments for specific drug discovery programs. Example: $17.5M collaboration with Vindur Tx for cancer treatment development. These are milestone-based deals rather than recurring SaaS.
- Platform Licensing: White-label model allowing biotech consultancies to compete under their own brand. Partners like Mechanica use BIOPTIC's capabilities to power AI-driven venture creation.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Enterprise SaaS with usage-based screening |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Self-serve pipeline platform access |
| Other | Multi-year contract | White-label/Partner licensing |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels7 records
OPTIC product offering
Product offeringCore offering
OPTIC (operating as BIOPTIC) sells an AI-native drug discovery platform combining three proprietary models — B1 (ligand-based ultra-high-throughput virtual screening), B2 (sequence-based hit identification), and B3 (ADME predictions) — along with an autonomous Bioptic Agent for drug asset scouting across global sources. The platform screens 40B+ compound libraries in minutes using SMILES-based transformers and graph neural networks, and supports both enterprise pharma collaborations and self-serve access for researchers.
Product overview
OPTIC (operates as BIOPTIC) is an AI-native drug discovery company built around a unified platform combining three core scientific AI models — B1 (ligand-based virtual screening), B2 (sequence-based hit identification), and B3 (ADME predictions) — powered by a Bioptic Agent system for autonomous drug asset scouting. The platform screens ultra-large chemical libraries (40B+ compounds) in minutes using SMILES-based transformers and graph neural networks, enabling hit-to-lead conversion in weeks rather than years. OPTIC also develops its own internal and co-owned drug pipeline programs targeting LRRK2 (Parkinson's), TNIK (obesity), and VEGFR3 (solid tumors), and releases benchmarks and tools (PLUMBER) for the broader AI drug discovery community.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- BIOPTIC Platform AI-native drug discovery platform that powers BIOPTIC's B1/B2/B3 models and the Bioptic Agent system, enabling scientists to screen billions of molecules in minutes, predict ADMET properties, and surface drug assets across global sources from target identification through lead optimization. Sold to enterprise pharma, biotech, and academic customers.
- BIOPTIC B1 — Ligand-Based Hit Identification
Quantifiable outcome
- 40B compound screen completed in 2.5 minutes with 100% recall at ~$5 estimated cost
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use OPTIC
Customer profileNamed customers4 records
Segments6 records
Ideal customer profiles6 records
OPTIC technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration1 record
AI capability9 records
Feature5 records
OPTIC partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Six partnerships are on record, tiered core, key, industry and flagship.
- Stanford University (Xinnan Wang Lab)coreStanford-led study published in Cell Chemical Biology demonstrated BIOPTIC B1's ability to identify novel Miro1 ligands for Friedreich's Ataxia. BIOPTIC screened 3.2B molecules; Stanford synthesized and tested compounds in patient-derived neurons. Patent filed jointly. Second peer-reviewed publication validating BIOPTIC's platform.
- MechanicakeyNew partnership to power AI-driven venture creation. BIOPTIC's capabilities enable Mechanica to offer AI-powered drug discovery as part of their venture creation programs across multiple initiatives.
- Alliance for AI in Healthcare (AAIH)industryBioptic officially became member of AAIH alongside industry leaders like Roche, Google, Genentech. Membership provides access to global biotech/tel network, policy influence opportunities, and industry visibility. AAIH serves as unified voice for AI in healthcare advocating for standards and regulatory frameworks.
- Vindur Txflagship$17.5M collaboration to accelerate development of novel cancer treatments. BIOPTIC provides proprietary AI platform to identify highly selective kinase inhibitors for 'undruggable' targets in difficult-to-treat cancers. Represents major validation of BIOPTIC's platform and business model.
- eMoleculescoreStrategic partnership integrating eMolecules' 20M+ compound library into BIOPTIC's AI platform. Enables scientists to screen compounds and order hits directly through eMolecules' procurement system—streamlining the transition from virtual screening to laboratory validation. Addresses critical bottleneck in drug discovery workflow.
- OncoboxcorePartnership to advance targeted anti-cancer therapies. Oncobox used patient-derived multi-omic data to identify VEGFR-3 as promising target; BIOPTIC's AI discovered potent, selective inhibitors (IC50 = 420 nM). Combined approach accelerates precision oncology development.
Scale indicators8 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
OPTIC competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Atomwise: Pioneer in AI-driven small molecule drug discovery using convolutional neural networks on 3D molecular structures. Directly competes with BIOPTIC B1 in ligand-based virtual screening and serves similar pharma and biotech customers.
- Insilico Medicine: AI-driven drug discovery company combining generative chemistry, target discovery, and an internal pipeline. Overlaps with BIOPTIC's B1/B2/B3 platform and its strategy of developing both platform IP and proprietary programs.
- Recursion Pharmaceuticals: AI-native drug discovery platform combining high-throughput biology with machine learning. Competes for the same enterprise pharma partnerships and BD&L-level attention, though its wet-lab-centric approach differs from BIOPTIC's purely in silico model.
- Schrödinger: Computational chemistry and physics-based drug discovery platform (LiveDesign, FEP+) used across pharma R&D. Overlaps with BIOPTIC's virtual screening and ADMET prediction offerings, though Schrödinger is more established and broader in scope.
- Exscientia: AI-driven precision medicine and drug discovery company with both a platform and proprietary pipeline. Directly comparable as a full-stack AI drug discovery competitor targeting the same pharma enterprise customers.
- BenevolentAI: AI drug discovery company combining knowledge graphs, target identification, and clinical development. Competes with BIOPTIC's Bioptic Agent for BD&L and competitive intelligence use cases within large pharma.
Broad incumbents
- Isomorphic Labs: Alphabet/DeepMind-backed drug discovery company applying AlphaFold-era foundation models to pharma. Operates broadly in the same AI drug discovery category with much deeper resources and brand recognition.
Emerging players
- Iambic: Early-stage AI drug discovery company using neural network-based molecular generation and physics-informed models. Comparable emerging peer pursuing novel chemistry for pharma partners.
- Cradle: AI protein engineering and biologics design company with a generative biology platform. Compares as a peer in the broader AI-for-biopharma tooling category, though focused on proteins rather than small molecules.
Others
- Valence Labs: AI research organization that co-released the PLUMBER benchmark with BIOPTIC and operates adjacent drug discovery infrastructure. Comparable as an ecosystem participant in AI-for-chemistry tooling.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
OPTIC social profiles
Digital presenceOPTIC financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
OPTIC leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles7 records
OPTIC funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds3 records
Investors13 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
OPTIC 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 OPTIC
What does OPTIC do?
OPTIC (operating as BIOPTIC) sells an AI-native drug discovery platform combining three proprietary models — B1 (ligand-based ultra-high-throughput virtual screening), B2 (sequence-based hit identification), and B3 (ADME predictions) — along with an autonomous Bioptic Agent for drug asset scouting across global sources. The platform screens 40B+ compound libraries in minutes using SMILES-based transformers and graph neural networks, and supports both enterprise pharma collaborations and self-serve access for researchers.
Is OPTIC a public or private company?
OPTIC is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was OPTIC founded?
OPTIC was founded in 2022. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is OPTIC based?
OPTIC is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does OPTIC make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. SaaS Platform Access (Subscription + Usage) is the primary driver. The others are collaboration Deals and platform Licensing.
Who are OPTIC's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Atomwise, Insilico Medicine, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Schrödinger, Exscientia and BenevolentAI. Isomorphic Labs is listed as a broad incumbent. Emerging players are Iambic and Cradle. Valence Labs is listed as an others.
Does OPTIC have an API?
No public API is recorded for OPTIC.
What industry is OPTIC in?
OPTIC's product category is AI Drug Discovery Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HLAGAJAO, AI/ML Platforms for Drug Discovery & Experiment Optimization, with a secondary code of HLAAAIAE, AI/ML-Enabled Biologic Discovery Platforms (computational design, in silico screening). Its NAICS code is 541714 and its SIC code is 3826.