PerturbAI
PerturbAI is an AI-native therapeutics company combining scalable in vivo CRISPR perturbation with causal AI models to generate organism-scale perturbation atlases for drug discovery, serving pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies developing treatments for complex metabolic and chronic diseases.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2025
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What PerturbAI does
PerturbAI is an AI-native therapeutics company founded in 2025 and headquartered in San Francisco that combines scalable in vivo CRISPR perturbation (Perturb-seq) with proprietary AI models to accelerate drug discovery. Its core platform, the PerturbAI Engine, generates organism-scale perturbation atlases that link genes to cells, circuits, and disease, with the flagship being the world's largest brain-wide in vivo CRISPR atlas — 8 million cells spanning hundreds of neuronal cell types, generated in collaboration with NVIDIA, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and 10x Genomics. The company is developing therapeutics for complex metabolic and chronic diseases including neurodegeneration, psychiatric, metabolic, and rare disease indications.
The platform is anchored by a proprietary AI Stack comprising autonomous agents (biological, clinical, and grader agents), reasoning models, and predictive models trained on causal in vivo biology data, integrated with NVIDIA BioNeMo Agent Toolkit, RAPIDS-singlecell, and (for public-facing tools) OpenAI workflows. PerturbAI's go-to-market combines enterprise partnership and licensing for therapeutic development with a product-led growth motion through public release of the atlas on Hugging Face and via NVIDIA AI Blueprint for Single-Cell Analysis, with 30,000+ downloads since March 2026. The company emerged from stealth on March 17, 2026, is pre-revenue, and operates with 1–10 employees led by co-founder and CEO Grace Zheng, Ph.D., co-founder Xin Jin, and COO Caroline Moon. Strategic partners include NVIDIA (core), Allen Institute for Brain Science (core), 10x Genomics (core), and OpenAI (public tools); the company closed an oversubscribed pre-seed round in Q3 2025.
PerturbAI firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- PerturbAI
- Legal name
- PerturbAI
- Website
- https://perturb.ai
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2025
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- PerturbAI is an AI-native therapeutics company combining scalable in vivo CRISPR perturbation with causal AI models to generate organism-scale perturbation atlases for drug discovery, serving pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies developing treatments for complex metabolic and chronic diseases.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
PerturbAI 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)
- akta.pro primary industry
- CRISPR & Functional Genomics Screening Platforms (pooled/arrayed screens, perturb-seq) (HLAAAIAG)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Target Identification & Validation Platforms (omics-driven, chemoproteomics, genetic validation) (HLAAAIAI), Drug Discovery (Target ID/Validation & Hit Discovery) (HLAIALAA), AI/ML Platforms for Drug Discovery & Experiment Optimization (HLAGAJAO), In Vivo Discovery & Translational Models Platforms (humanized models, PK/PD, efficacy) (HLAAAIAK)
Keywords
Where PerturbAI is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
PerturbAI business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Therapeutic Development and Licensing: PerturbAI develops therapeutics for complex metabolic and chronic diseases using its in vivo CRISPR platform and causal AI models. Revenue would be generated through drug development partnerships, licensing deals, and eventual product commercialization.
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels6 records
PerturbAI product offering
Product offeringCore offering
PerturbAI operates an AI-native drug discovery platform that combines in vivo CRISPR Perturb-seq functional genomics screens with proprietary AI models to map gene-phenotype relationships at single-cell resolution. The core deliverable is a target identification and validation engine, supported by reference datasets such as the Whole-Brain CRISPR Atlas (approximately 8 million cells) that serve as training data for the company's predictive models. The platform is offered to pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners and academic researchers seeking novel, in vivo-validated therapeutic targets.
Product overview
PerturbAI is an AI-native therapeutics company offering a unified platform that combines scalable in vivo CRISPR perturbation with proprietary AI to accelerate drug discovery. The core offering consists of the PerturbAI Engine, which generates organism-scale perturbation atlases, powered by the company's Whole-Brain CRISPR Atlas (8 million cells) and supported by a proprietary AI stack of autonomous agents, reasoning models, and predictive models. Public analysis tools enable the broader research community to explore the atlas via NVIDIA and Hugging Face integrations. The platform enables a closed-loop workflow from causal data generation in living systems to biological insight, target prioritization, and therapeutic hypothesis development in days/weeks rather than months/years.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- PerturbAI Engine AI-native therapeutics platform that combines in vivo CRISPR Perturb-seq screens with proprietary AI models to map gene-phenotype relationships at single-cell resolution and identify novel therapeutic targets for pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners.
- Whole-Brain CRISPR Atlas Reference single-cell dataset of approximately 8 million brain cells produced through in vivo CRISPR Perturb-seq, serving as a training corpus for the PerturbAI Engine and as a public resource enabling researchers to study gene function and disease mechanisms.
- Proprietary AI Stack Proprietary machine learning foundation models trained on PerturbAI's in vivo single-cell perturbation datasets to predict gene-phenotype relationships and prioritize therapeutic targets for partners.
Quantifiable outcome
- Atlas downloaded over 30,000 times within months of release
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use PerturbAI
Customer profileSegments2 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
PerturbAI technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration4 records
AI capability7 records
Feature4 records
PerturbAI partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Five partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.
- OpenAIminorCollaboration with OpenAI to develop public tools and workflows allowing researchers to explore, analyze, and reason over the whole-brain CRISPR atlas dataset.
- NVIDIA InceptionminorPerturbAI became a new member of NVIDIA Inception startup program, through which they will continue working with NVIDIA to help make scalable analysis environments more accessible to the research community.
- NVIDIAcoreCollaboration with NVIDIA to generate and analyze the world's largest in vivo CRISPR atlas. NVIDIA provides computational infrastructure including BioNeMo platform, AI Blueprint for Single-Cell Analysis, and RAPIDS-singlecell tools for near-real-time processing of the 8 million-cell dataset. Partnership enables AI agents to call high-performance domain-specific tools.
- Allen Institute for Brain SciencecoreCollaboration integrating PerturbAI's functional perturbation data with the Allen Institute's high-resolution cell-type taxonomy. Hongkui Zeng, EVP and senior author of the Allen Brain Cell Atlas, contributed to precisely mapping each gene's perturbation effects onto known neuronal circuits.
- 10x GenomicscoreCollaboration with 10x Genomics to generate and analyze the CRISPR atlas using large-scale CRISPR screening and single-nucleus RNA sequencing technologies.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights6 records
PerturbAI competitors and assessment
Company assessmentMarket position
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
PerturbAI social profiles
Digital presencePerturbAI financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
PerturbAI leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
PerturbAI funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
PerturbAI 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 PerturbAI
What does PerturbAI do?
PerturbAI operates an AI-native drug discovery platform that combines in vivo CRISPR Perturb-seq functional genomics screens with proprietary AI models to map gene-phenotype relationships at single-cell resolution. The core deliverable is a target identification and validation engine, supported by reference datasets such as the Whole-Brain CRISPR Atlas (approximately 8 million cells) that serve as training data for the company's predictive models. The platform is offered to pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners and academic researchers seeking novel, in vivo-validated therapeutic targets.
Is PerturbAI a public or private company?
PerturbAI is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was PerturbAI founded?
PerturbAI was founded in 2025. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is PerturbAI based?
PerturbAI is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does PerturbAI make money?
One revenue line is on record: therapeutic Development and Licensing.
Does PerturbAI have an API?
No public API is recorded for PerturbAI.
What industry is PerturbAI in?
PerturbAI's product category is AI Drug Discovery Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HLAAAIAG, CRISPR & Functional Genomics Screening Platforms (pooled/arrayed screens, perturb-seq), with a secondary code of HLAAAIAI, Target Identification & Validation Platforms (omics-driven, chemoproteomics, genetic validation). Its NAICS code is 541714 and its SIC code is 8731.