Menten AI
Menten AI develops generative AI and physics-based computational tools for the de novo design of cyclic peptide therapeutics, targeting top-10 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies seeking to drug protein-protein interactions and other challenging targets. The company monetizes through research collaborations and platform licensing with enterprise pharma partners.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2019
- HeadquartersPalo Alto, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Menten AI does
Menten AI is a Palo Alto-based private biotechnology company that builds generative AI and physics-based computational tools for the de novo design of cyclic peptide therapeutics. Its flagship platform, MAUD 1.0 (Multi-parametric AI for Unbiased Design), combines generative AI, physics-based modeling, and quantum chemistry simulations to design drug-like peptide macrocycles from scratch without relying on large training datasets, instead using physics-informed reinforcement learning to optimize potency, permeability, stability, and selectivity simultaneously. Supporting technical components include the XENet graph convolution for protein design, the Menten GCN Python library, and QPacker, which maps protein design problems to a D-Wave quantum annealer.
The company targets top-10 global pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology firms seeking to drug targets beyond the reach of small molecules and biologics, including protein-protein interactions, with reported validation including nM-level potency, oral bioavailability greater than 18% F, cell permeability above Log Pe -6, and a hit rate above 90%. It has a research collaboration agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb and has partnered with Ginkgo Bioworks, Google Cloud, Xanadu, and AWS for technology integration and ecosystem distribution.
Menten AI generates revenue primarily through research collaboration agreements and platform licensing arrangements with enterprise pharma partners, including milestone-based engagements and potential downstream royalties. The company is backed by Uncork Capital, Khosla Ventures, Social Impact Capital, and Y Combinator, with a total of approximately $4 million in disclosed funding across a 2019 seed and a 2020 priced round, plus undisclosed later rounds in 2023 and 2025. Founded in 2018-2019 by Hans Melo and Vikram Mulligan (a core developer of the Rosetta protein design software), the company operates with a team of 1-10 employees in a remote-first structure.
Menten AI firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Menten AI
- Legal name
- Menten AI, Inc.
- Website
- https://menten.ai
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2019
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Menten AI develops generative AI and physics-based computational tools for the de novo design of cyclic peptide therapeutics, targeting top-10 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies seeking to drug protein-protein interactions and other challenging targets. The company monetizes through research collaborations and platform licensing with enterprise pharma partners.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Menten AI industry classification
Industry- Product category
- AI Drug Discovery Platform
- NAICS
- Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714)
- 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
- Engineered Protein Therapeutics (de novo/AI-designed proteins, novel scaffolds) (HLAAAAAJ), Therapeutic Peptides & Protein/Peptide Biologics (HLAAAAAH), Protein Engineering & Directed Evolution Platforms (enzyme/therapeutic protein optimization) (HLAAAIAC)
Keywords
Where Menten AI is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Palo Alto
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Menten AI business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Pharmaceutical Research Partnerships: Menten AI generates revenue through strategic research collaborations with pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Partnerships involve leveraging the MAUD 1.0 platform to design and optimize peptide therapeutics for specific drug targets. Revenue is derived from research collaboration agreements, likely including milestone payments and downstream royalties. The company has an established partnership with Bristol Myers Squibb for peptide macrocycle design and optimization.
- Platform Licensing and Collaboration: Revenue is also generated through platform licensing and collaborative development arrangements with pharma partners. The company provides access to its proprietary MAUD 1.0 platform capabilities for external drug discovery programs, suggesting a combination of service fees and potential downstream value sharing.
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels7 records
Menten AI product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Menten AI develops and operates MAUD 1.0, a generative AI platform that combines physics-based modeling and quantum simulations to design cyclic peptide macrocycle therapeutics from scratch (de novo) for complex drug targets including challenging protein-protein interfaces. The platform has been validated across the preclinical discovery pipeline with demonstrated nM-level potency, oral bioavailability, and cell-permeability.
Product overview
Menten AI offers a unified generative AI platform centered on MAUD 1.0 for the design of cyclic peptide therapeutics. The platform integrates generative AI, physics-based modeling, and quantum simulations to enable de novo peptide design with drug-like properties. Supporting products include XENet (a graph neural network for quantum-accelerated protein design) and the Menten GCN Python library (for creating ML tensors from protein structures). The platform targets pharma and biotech partners seeking to drug challenging targets beyond the reach of small molecules and biologics.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- MAUD 1.0 Multi-parametric AI for Unbiased Design (MAUD 1.0) is Menten AI's generative AI platform that designs cyclic peptide macrocycles from scratch (de novo) for complex drug targets including challenging Protein-Protein Interfaces. It combines generative AI with physics-based models and quantum simulations, has demonstrated nM-level potency, oral bioavailability, cell permeability, and >90% hit rate, and is targeted at pharmaceutical and biotech R&D partners.
Quantifiable outcome
- >90% hit rate in peptide design
- +5 more outcomes
Companies that use Menten AI
Customer profileNamed customers1 record
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Menten AI technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability6 records
Feature7 records
Menten AI partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Five partnerships are on record, tiered major and core.
- Google CloudmajorMenten AI collaborated with Google Cloud to accelerate innovation in drug discovery. Featured in Google's biotech innovation showcase highlighting generative AI startups. Menten AI's platform likely leverages Google Cloud's compute infrastructure for AI model training and molecular simulations.
- Bristol Myers SquibbcoreMenten AI completed a research collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb leveraging Menten AI's generative AI platform to accelerate the design and optimization of peptide macrocycles. The collaboration demonstrates Menten AI's ability to partner with top-10 global pharmaceutical companies on drug discovery programs. BMS is a major pharmaceutical company with extensive drug discovery operations.
- Ginkgo BioworksmajorMenten AI joined the Ginkgo Technology Network to integrate its cutting-edge AI capabilities into Ginkgo's ecosystem, offering customers enhanced solutions for designing cyclic peptides. Menten AI is developing the world's most advanced physics-based generative AI platform for cyclic peptide design, enabling partners to develop permeable peptides, PPI binders, molecular glues, conjugated peptides, and inhibitors. The collaboration extends Menten AI's reach to Ginkgo's customer base.
- XanaducoreMenten AI partnered with Xanadu to develop quantum machine learning for protein-based drug discovery. Menten AI selected Xanadu's open-source library PennyLane to leverage quantum simulation and quantum machine learning capabilities for developing novel protein-based drugs. This partnership combines Menten AI's drug design expertise with Xanadu's photonic quantum computing platform.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)coreMenten AI leverages AWS for cloud infrastructure, AI, and quantum computing to create new and improved drugs. AWS blog featured Menten AI as an example of a startup using cloud and quantum computing for drug discovery. Menten AI created the world's first protein designed on a quantum computer, with AWS infrastructure supporting the computational workload.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Menten AI competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Generate Biomedicines: Flagship-backed generative biology company designing de novo protein therapeutics using AI/ML. Direct comparable to Menten AI in the AI-designed biologic / macrocycle space with similar enterprise pharma partnership model.
- Cradle Bio: AI-driven protein design platform for engineering novel biologics, including enzymes and binders. Comparable to Menten AI in applying generative AI to protein engineering for pharma partners.
- Profluent: AI protein design company founded by CRISPR pioneers building foundation models for protein engineering. Closely comparable AI-first approach to designing novel functional proteins and peptides.
- Insilico Medicine: AI-driven drug discovery platform covering target identification, generative chemistry, and clinical development. Comparable in using AI/ML to compress preclinical timelines and partnering with pharma on discovery programs.
- Atomwise: AI small-molecule discovery company with pharma partnerships. Comparable AI/ML-led drug discovery platform with enterprise partnership motion, although focused on small molecules rather than peptides.
Broad incumbents
- Isomorphic Labs: Alphabet/DeepMind spinout applying AlphaFold-derived AI to drug discovery across multiple modalities and therapeutic areas. Comparable AI-first drug discovery platform with vastly deeper capital and pharma alliances.
- Recursion Pharmaceuticals: Publicly listed AI-driven drug discovery company combining high-throughput biology with ML to advance a broad pipeline. Comparable AI-pharma business model, though at significantly larger scale and scope.
Emerging players
- Xaira Therapeutics: Well-funded (~$1B launch) AI drug discovery company leveraging foundation models for therapeutics R&D. Comparable AI-first approach to drug design and biology, with overlapping pharma partnership aspirations.
- EvolutionaryScale: AI protein design startup from the ESM (Meta) team building frontier protein language models. Comparable in applying large-scale ML to de novo protein engineering, including therapeutic peptides and binders.
- Chai Discovery: AI platform for molecular design spanning small molecules and biologics, with pharma partnerships. Comparable AI-first drug discovery stack, though with a broader modality remit than Menten's peptide focus.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Menten AI social profiles
Digital presenceMenten AI financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Menten AI leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles9 records
Menten AI funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds3 records
Investors8 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Menten AI 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 Menten AI
What does Menten AI do?
Menten AI develops and operates MAUD 1.0, a generative AI platform that combines physics-based modeling and quantum simulations to design cyclic peptide macrocycle therapeutics from scratch (de novo) for complex drug targets including challenging protein-protein interfaces. The platform has been validated across the preclinical discovery pipeline with demonstrated nM-level potency, oral bioavailability, and cell-permeability.
Is Menten AI a public or private company?
Menten AI is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Menten AI founded?
Menten AI was founded in 2019. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Menten AI based?
Menten AI is headquartered in Palo Alto, United States, in the North America region.
How does Menten AI make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Pharmaceutical Research Partnerships are the primary driver. The others are platform Licensing and Collaboration.
Who are Menten AI's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Generate Biomedicines, Cradle Bio, Profluent, Insilico Medicine and Atomwise. Broad incumbents are Isomorphic Labs and Recursion Pharmaceuticals. Emerging players are Xaira Therapeutics, EvolutionaryScale and Chai Discovery.
Does Menten AI have an API?
No public API is recorded for Menten AI.
What industry is Menten AI in?
Menten AI's product category is AI Drug Discovery Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HLAAAIAE, AI/ML-Enabled Biologic Discovery Platforms (computational design, in silico screening), with a secondary code of HLAAAAAJ, Engineered Protein Therapeutics (de novo/AI-designed proteins, novel scaffolds). Its NAICS code is 541714 and its SIC code is 8731.