What Open Molecular Software Foundation does

Open Molecular Software Foundation (OMSF) is a Delaware-incorporated nonprofit foundation founded in 2021, with its principal office in Davis, California. The foundation provides fiscal sponsorship, governance frameworks, and operational infrastructure to open-source projects in computational molecular sciences, serving hosted projects with back-office support including accounting, legal counsel, HR, contracts, and insurance. OMSF's organizational structure — with Hosted Project Members and Sponsor Members governed by a Board of Directors — is designed to keep projects independent of any single developer or institution.

The foundation's flagship technical asset is OpenFold3, an open-source AI foundation model released in preview in October 2025 that predicts the three-dimensional structures of proteins, nucleic acids, and drugs, as well as protein-molecule co-folding interactions, from amino acid sequences. OpenFold3 integrates physics-based approaches with machine learning to support drug discovery, enzyme design, biosensor design, and biomaterials development. The model was developed with contributions from SandboxAQ and is hosted under the OpenFold Consortium within OMSF. The foundation also operates the OMSF Software Directory (directory.omsf.io), a public catalog of molecular science tools, and the OMSF Playbooks, a set of best-practice guidelines for open-source scientific software projects.

OMSF's revenue model is nonprofit and philanthropic: it receives grants and donations from mission-driven organizations (including NSF Grant No. 2030508), membership fees from Sponsor Members set by the Board of Directors, and retained management fees from fiscal sponsorship of hosted projects. No membership fees are charged to Hosted Project Members. The foundation serves academic researchers, industry partners (such as SandboxAQ), and philanthropic funders seeking sustainable, neutral infrastructure for open-source molecular science software, distributing all outputs under open-source licenses (primarily CC BY 4.0 for documentation).

Name

Open Molecular Software Foundation

Legal name

Open Molecular Software Foundation

Website

https://omsf.io

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Open Molecular Software Foundation (OMSF) is a 2021-founded nonprofit that provides fiscal sponsorship and governance infrastructure for open-source projects in computational molecular sciences, including the OpenFold3 AI foundation model for protein structure prediction, serving academic researchers, industry partners, and philanthropic funders.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Scientific Open Source Software

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417), Software Publishers (5132)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Bioinformatics & Multi-omics Analysis Software (HLAGAJAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Multi-Omics Precision Medicine Platforms (genomics/proteomics/metabolomics) (HLAAANAF), Single-Cell & Spatial Omics Discovery Platforms (target ID/validation, functional profiling) (HLAAAIAF), Bioinformatics, Multi-Omics Data Analysis & Interpretation Services (HLAGANAI)

Keywords

• Open source molecular software
• Biomolecular structure prediction
• Fiscal sponsorship services
• Computational chemistry tools
• AI protein folding

Headquarters

HQ city

California

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

Revenue model

1. Philanthropic Grants and Donations: OMSF and its hosted projects benefit from grants and donations from mission-driven philanthropic organizations. Contributions support project sustainability, capacity building, and community-building initiatives.
2. Fiscal Sponsorship Administration: OMSF provides fiscal sponsorship services to hosted projects, managing consortium funding, tax considerations, and operational logistics. Management fees may be deducted from funds received and held on behalf of Hosted Projects.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Open Molecular Software Foundation (OMSF) is a Delaware-incorporated nonprofit foundation that supports sustainable open-source molecular scientific communities by providing fiscal sponsorship, governance, and operational back-office support to hosted open-source projects. Its core technology offering is OpenFold3, an open-source AI foundation model for biomolecular structure prediction that integrates physics-based and machine-learning methods for protein-molecule co-folding.

Product overview

Open Molecular Software Foundation (OMSF) is a nonprofit organization that provides infrastructure for open-source projects in computational molecular sciences. The foundation's core product is OpenFold3, an open-source AI foundation model for biomolecular structure prediction of proteins, nucleic acids, and drugs. OMSF also operates the OpenFold Consortium which develops open-source AI tools for structural biology and drug discovery. Beyond OpenFold, OMSF offers the OMSF Directory for listing molecular science software and workflows, and the OMSF Playbooks for best practices guidance. The foundation provides organizational support services including fiscal sponsorship, governance frameworks, administrative support, and community building for hosted open-source projects.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• OpenFold3
• Organizational Support Services (Fiscal Sponsorship)

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

AI capability5 records

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• University of Washington Institute for Protein Design (IPD)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 March 2026OMSF's OpenFold Consortium launched a research fellowship collaboration with the University of Washington's Institute for Protein Design. The aim is to develop open-source AI tools for protein structure prediction and drug discovery, supporting researchers and companies worldwide.
• SandboxAQcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 28 October 2025SandboxAQ contributed to the development of OpenFold3, an open-source biomolecular co-folding model released by the OpenFold Consortium. The contributions enhance the model's ability to predict protein-molecule structures, supporting accelerated drug development and research in medical conditions.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• Wellcome Leap: Wellcome Leap is a philanthropic organization funding bold, time-limited programs in health and biomedicine. It is an adjacent funder rather than a direct peer, but represents the kind of large philanthropic program OMSF could partner with as a delivery vehicle for open molecular science software.

Direct peers

• Open Bioinformatics Foundation: O|B|F is a nonprofit supporting open-source projects in bioinformatics (BioPerl, Biopython, OpenMMS). It is the closest domain-specific peer to OMSF in providing governance and infrastructure for open-source computational biology software used by academic researchers.
• NumFOCUS: NumFOCUS is a nonprofit that provides fiscal sponsorship, governance, and operational support to open-source scientific computing projects (NumPy, pandas, Jupyter). It is the closest analogue to OMSF's fiscal-sponsorship-plus-scientific-software model, and serves overlapping communities of academic researchers and scientific Python users.
• Software Freedom Conservancy: Software Freedom Conservancy provides fiscal sponsorship, legal, and infrastructure services to open-source projects (Git, Selenium, PyTorch). It is a direct peer in the fiscal-sponsorship-for-open-source-software niche that OMSF operates in, though Conservancy focuses more broadly on software rather than molecular sciences.

Broad incumbents

• Apache Software Foundation: The Apache Software Foundation is a major open-source foundation providing governance, legal, and infrastructure support for hundreds of projects. It is a broad incumbent with a comparable nonprofit-foundation governance model, though focused broadly on infrastructure software rather than molecular sciences.
• The Linux Foundation: The Linux Foundation is the largest open-source foundation, hosting thousands of projects across industries. It is the broad incumbent demonstrating the scale the open-source-foundation model can reach, and provides the antitrust-policy template OMSF explicitly adapted.
• DeepMind / Isomorphic Labs (AlphaFold): DeepMind's AlphaFold (and the spin-out Isomorphic Labs) is the leading closed-source foundation model for protein structure prediction. It is the broad incumbent that OpenFold3 is most directly competing with in biomolecular AI, though it is not a nonprofit and does not operate a fiscal-sponsorship platform.
• Mozilla Foundation: Mozilla Foundation supports open-source initiatives including Mozilla Science and open research tooling. It is a broad incumbent with a comparable nonprofit-foundation model focused on open technology, with some overlap in funding open science software.
• Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (Science): CZI's Essential Open Source Software for Science (EOSS) program funds open-source tools in biology and biomedical research. It is both a potential funder and a broad incumbent in the open-science-for-molecular-biology space that OMSF targets.

Regional players

• Baker Lab / RoseTTAFold (Institute for Protein Design): The Baker Lab at the University of Washington's Institute for Protein Design developed RoseTTAFold, a leading open-source protein structure prediction model. It is a research-lab peer to OMSF's OpenFold Consortium operating in the same niche, and is also a partner via the new research fellowship — illustrating both collaboration and overlap.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/openmsf
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/omsf

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Open Molecular Software Foundation