Bonito Biosciences

What Bonito Biosciences does

Bonito Biosciences is a private biotechnology company founded in 2022 and headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, with an additional operating presence in London, UK established alongside its DaltonTx collaboration. The company is focused on tissue-selective drug delivery for oligonucleotides and macromolecules, an area it identifies as a critical bottleneck for the broader therapeutic class. Its initial therapeutic priority is delivery to the central nervous system, which it characterizes as historically inaccessible to oligotherapeutics.

The core offering is an integrated wet-lab-and-computation platform with three interlocking components: giga-scale encoded libraries that physically test billions of compounds for delivery; live-cell functional selections that screen hundreds of billions of encoded ligands against complex cellular delivery phenotypes and capture high-dimensional information on receptor engagement and uptake; and AI-driven discovery systems that use the resulting enrichment data as training signal to rank ligands and model delivery rules. Therapeutic outputs span small molecule ligands, antibody fragment and bispecific ligands, and target-agnostic "novel delivery gateways." The platform is designed to generate data directly on membrane-bound targets and to deliver what the company claims is an order of magnitude improvement in signal-to-noise relative to traditional delivery discovery approaches.

Commercially, Bonito operates a B2B direct partnership model targeting pharmaceutical and biotech companies developing oligotherapeutic medicines. The company has not disclosed pricing or revenue mechanics; characterization as quote-based and negotiated on a partnership-by-partnership basis is consistent with an early-stage platform monetizing through research collaborations, option-to-license structures, or co-development rather than productized sales. The company has raised $9 million to date in a May 2024 financing led by Anterra Capital with Jazz Venture Partners and Lightstone Ventures, and in May 2026 announced a strategic collaboration with DaltonTx to pair Bonito's functional delivery data engine with DaltonTx's adaptive AI systems for CNS-directed delivery ligand design.

Name

Bonito Biosciences

Legal name

Bonito Biosciences

Website

https://bonitobio.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2022

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Bonito Biosciences is a private biotechnology company building an integrated platform that combines giga-scale encoded libraries, live-cell functional selections, and AI-driven discovery to enable tissue-selective delivery of oligonucleotide therapeutics, initially targeting the central nervous system for pharmaceutical and biotech partners.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Biotechnology Drug Delivery Platforms

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Biological Products, (No Disgnostic Substances) (2836)

akta.pro primary industry

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

akta.pro secondary industries

RNA Therapeutics Platforms & Design (sequence design, target ID/validation, AI/bioinformatics) (HLAAADAG), AI/ML Platforms for Drug Discovery & Experiment Optimization (HLAGAJAO), Protein Engineering & Directed Evolution Platforms (enzyme/therapeutic protein optimization) (HLAAAIAC)

Keywords

• Oligonucleotide drug delivery
• Encoded library discovery
• Delivery ligand screening
• AI-enabled drug discovery
• Tissue-selective therapeutics

Headquarters

HQ city

Waltham

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

Bonito Biosciences builds a discovery platform that generates proprietary biological datasets to drive AI-enabled design of delivery ligands for oligonucleotide therapeutics. The platform combines giga-scale encoded libraries, live-cell functional selections, and AI-driven modeling to discover small molecule and antibody delivery ligands paired with oligotherapeutic payloads. Its initial therapeutic focus is precision delivery to the central nervous system and other tissues historically inaccessible to oligotherapeutics.

Product overview

Bonito Biosciences offers a unified platform combining three core technology components - Encoded Libraries (for giga-scale molecular diversity screening), Functional Selections (for live-cell selection of delivery phenotypes), and AI-Driven Discovery (for modeling and optimizing delivery ligands) - together with therapeutic offerings including Small Molecule Ligands, Antibody Agent Ligands, and Novel Delivery Gateways. The platform generates proprietary biological datasets that drive an iterative AI-enabled discovery loop for programmable oligonucleotide delivery.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Encoded Libraries Bonito's encoded library technology rebuilt specifically for delivery ligand discovery, turning giga-scale molecular diversity into selectable, functional cellular signal for physical testing of billions of compounds. Offered to pharmaceutical and biotech partners developing oligotherapeutic medicines.
• Functional Selections Live-cell screening workflow that screens hundreds of billions of encoded ligands against complex cellular delivery phenotypes, capturing high-dimensional information related to receptor engagement and cellular delivery. Designed for pharmaceutical and biotech partners seeking functional, not just binding, data.
• AI-Driven Discovery AI-enabled discovery offering that uses high-density enrichment data as training signal for models that rank ligands, expose delivery rules, and generalize across cellular gateways to program delivery ligands for any cell or tissue type. Aimed at pharmaceutical and biotech partners developing precision delivery systems.
• Small Molecule Delivery Ligands Low molecular weight delivery systems designed for specific cell targets of interest, selected for functional uptake and paired with oligotherapeutic payloads. Targeted at pharmaceutical and biotech partners developing oligotherapeutic medicines for tissues such as the CNS.
• Antibody Agent Ligands Antibody fragments and bispecifics designed to unlock the hardest delivery challenges, selected for functional uptake and paired with oligotherapeutic payloads. Aimed at pharmaceutical and biotech partners pursuing targeted delivery to difficult tissues.
• Novel Delivery Gateways Target agnostic approach to identify the best access points into cells for oligotherapeutic delivery to any cell or tissue type. Targeted at pharmaceutical and biotech partners seeking programmable delivery to previously inaccessible tissues.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability4 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• DaltonTxcoreTechnology or Integration · 27 May 2026Collaboration to advance precision delivery systems for oligotherapeutic medicines, initially focusing on CNS delivery. The partnership combines Bonito's proprietary functional delivery data engine and ligand discovery platform with DaltonTx's adaptive AI systems to iteratively model, predict and optimize precision delivery biology. Together, the companies aim to establish an iterative learning loop for the rapid discovery of precision delivery systems for conjugated oligotherapeutics.
• DaltonTxcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDaltonTx, a London-based AI-powered drug discovery platform company founded by former scientists from AstraZeneca, Exscientia, and University of Oxford, signed Bonito Biosciences as one of its first two clients. Bonito is utilizing Dalton's platform for drug discovery enablement.

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Dyne Therapeutics: Clinical-stage biotech developing oligonucleotide therapeutics for muscle and CNS diseases using proprietary delivery conjugates. Directly comparable to Bonito's focus on tissue-selective oligonucleotide delivery, particularly in CNS.
• Entrada Therapeutics: Biotech focused on intracellular delivery of oligonucleotides and proteins using proprietary cell-penetrating peptides. Closely comparable to Bonito's delivery-ligand discovery approach and CNS/DMD therapeutic focus.
• Aro Biotherapeutics: Develops Centyrin-based targeted oligonucleotide therapeutics with tissue-selective delivery. Directly comparable as a platform combining protein scaffolds with conjugated oligotherapeutics for targeted delivery.
• ReCode Therapeutics: Develops lipid nanoparticle and selective organ targeting (SORT) delivery technologies for genetic medicines including mRNA and siRNA. Comparable to Bonito as a delivery-focused platform for nucleic acid therapeutics.
• Bicycle Therapeutics: Clinical-stage company using bicyclic peptide scaffolds as targeted delivery vehicles for oligonucleotides and other payloads. Directly comparable to Bonito's small-molecule and antibody ligand-based delivery strategy.
• Wave Life Sciences: Clinical-stage company developing stereopure oligonucleotide therapeutics with CNS programs. Directly comparable given overlapping focus on CNS-targeted oligonucleotide development and delivery.
• Sirnaomics: Clinical-stage RNAi company developing siRNA therapeutics with proprietary polypeptide nanoparticle and GalNAc delivery platforms. Comparable as a delivery-platform company targeting tissues historically inaccessible to RNAi.

Broad incumbents

• Alnylam Pharmaceuticals: Established RNAi therapeutics leader with proprietary GalNAc conjugate delivery platform. Relevant as the dominant incumbent in tissue-targeted oligonucleotide delivery that Bonito competes with for partnership and pipeline assets.
• Ionis Pharmaceuticals: Pioneer in antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapeutics with broad delivery expertise. Comparable as an established player whose CNS delivery challenges (e.g., nusinersen/Spinraza) validate the unmet need Bonito addresses.
• Recursion Pharmaceuticals: AI-enabled drug discovery company that built its value on proprietary high-dimensional biological datasets combined with ML. Highly relevant as a comparable platform-data flywheel model, even though its delivery focus differs.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/bonito-biosciences

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

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 Bonito Biosciences