How Much Did Adaptyv Raise? $40M Series A, No Valuation
Adaptyv closed a $40 million Series A led by Highland Europe. Y Combinator, ACE Ventures, and byFounders returned. Valuation was not disclosed. The company says throughput grew more than 5x and names Chai Discovery, Boltz, Roche, and Novo Nordisk as customers.
Adaptyv raised $40 million Series A on August 25, 2026. Highland Europe led. Y Combinator, ACE Ventures, and byFounders returned.
Unexpected truth: there is no valuation. The product is not a model. It is a wet lab that takes AI-designed protein sequences and returns experimental data. Named customers on the company post include Chai Discovery, Boltz, Roche, and Novo Nordisk.
This page is for people deciding whether a YC S21 lab-automation print belongs next to July’s Chai $3.8 billion mark. Last verified August 31, 2026. Primary facts are the company Series A post.
Five-minute decision
| If you need… | Verdict |
|---|---|
| What happened | Funded. $40M Series A, Aug 25. No valuation. |
| Who led | Highland Europe. No /fund/ page here. |
| What Adaptyv is | Automated protein wet lab. Not a therapeutics issuer. |
| Whether it is shipping | Company: >5x lab throughput in a year; >100 customers. |
| Whether to diligence | Yes, if you underwrite wet-lab bottleneck for AI biology. No, if you need a mark first. |
Investigate further when: you believe AI protein design is already faster than physical testing, and a copyable workcell is the scarce asset.
Wait or pass when: you need a post-money, a named contract value, or U.S. clinical data.
What happened
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Company | Adaptyv Bio (adaptyvbio.com); Lausanne / Biopôle; YC S21; founders Julian Englert, Daniel Nakhaee-Zadeh Gutierrez |
| Round | $40M Series A · no valuation · company post Aug 25; GGBa recap Aug 31 |
| Lead | Highland Europe (no /fund/ page) |
| Returning | ACE Ventures, byFounders, YC |
| Prior priced stack | $8M seed, ACE-led, Sep 25, 2025 (ACE post). Do not use “late 2024” from recaps without checking ACE. |
| Use of proceeds | Company: double Lausanne team; London office and lab Q4 2026. GGBa: roughly triple lab capacity by year-end; team 25 → ~60. |
| Revenue / valuation | Not in the Series A post. |
No /fund/ page for Highland Europe yet. ACE and byFounders are not in our fund directory.
What Adaptyv actually does
Job: take a digital protein sequence in, return wet-lab measurements out — so AI designers are not queued behind a 20-designs-per-target lab.
Company (Series A post): synthetic biology + nanofluidics + ML; throughput >5x over the past year; >100 customers spanning bio-AI labs and pharma.
Named customers (company): Chai Discovery, Boltz, Roche, Novo Nordisk.
Anthropic demo (company): Claude designed proteins, sent them to the lab, and got experimental data back. That is a collaboration claim, not a drug.
GGBa, writing August 31, adds the capacity plan (copy the workcell; London Q4; 25 to ~60 people) and says the seed was $8 million in 2025.
Adaptyv vs Chai vs AusperBio — what differs
| Adaptyv | Chai Discovery | AusperBio | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live print | $40M A, Aug 25, no valuation | $400M C @ $3.8B, Jul 14 | $120M C, Aug 27, no valuation |
| What they sell | Automated validation | Molecular-design models | HBV drug candidates |
| Named proof | Chai, Boltz, Roche, Novo (company) | Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer (company) | Phase 3 in China; not approved |
| Directory funds | YC | Index, Sequoia | None of this syndicate |
Same 2026 bio+AI tape. Three different balance sheets. Adaptyv is the lab Chai-class designers can call.
Worked numbers (company figures)
Setup: ACE disclosed $8 million seed (Sep 2025). This close is $40 million.
Move: $40M / $8M = 5x the last priced equity check.
Punch: the A is large versus the seed. It does not produce a valuation, an ARR, or a hit-rate you can take into a term sheet. Do not add the 2021–22 pre-seed into a fake 2026 total unless Adaptyv states one.
When not to use this page
- Do not invent a valuation.
- Do not treat Roche / Novo / Chai / Boltz logos as disclosed contract values.
- Do not paste EU-Startups’ ~10x revenue, Claude 26.8% hit rate, or Proteinbase 10,000 designs as if they were in the Series A post. Those are secondary recap figures.
- Do not date the seed as late 2024 against ACE’s September 25, 2025 post.
- Do not write Adaptyv as a therapeutics company. It is lab infrastructure.
- Highland Europe, ACE Ventures, or byFounders are not in our fund directory.
Where to go next
Entity: Adaptyv. Customer overlap: Boltz · Chai $400M / $3.8B. Same-month therapeutics: AusperBio $120M. YC: /fund/y-combinator · Winter 2027 apply dates. Day tape: August 31 VC news. Month: August 2026 VC news.
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Editorial note: AI tools assisted with research, structure, or drafting. Venture Capital Tracker retains human editorial responsibility for factual accuracy, relevance, and source quality before publication.
