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AI Discovery Award

AI Discovery by Nebius is an annual award for startups that are leveraging AI to revolutionize drug discovery, biotechnology, genomics and healthtech.

Our mission is to spotlight new technologies, foster collaboration between startups and potential investors and propel the next generation of breakthroughs in healthcare.

Applications have been collected — finalists will be announced in mid-May!

Award categories

AI in Drug Discovery

Transforming how we discover and develop new treatments.

AI in Biotech

Innovations at the intersection of biology and technology.

Genomics & Multiomics

Advancements in genetic and molecular analysis.

Healthtech

Revolutionizing healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.

Partners

Preliminary timeline

April 30, 2025

Applications submission deadline

May 15, 2025

Announcement of the semi-finalists

May 12–30, 2025

Final consideration

June 18, 2025

Official award ceremony

Semi finalists

Aikium

Aikium is a deep learning driven protein therapeutics company. Aikium has developed Yotta ML², a next-generation biologics discovery platform that combines ultra-large-scale wet lab screening with deep learning–based design.

BioBox Analytics

BioBox is on a mission to build reasoning systems that can decode biology and help scientists find new life-saving medicines. BioBox is used by drug discovery teams across biotechs and mid-market pharma to tackling and reducing risk in critical drug discovery decisions such as target discovery, indication selection and more.

Biolojic Design

Biolojic Design is a company pioneering precision antibodies, including multibodies, a next-generation antibody technology. Their platform mimics the immune system’s antibody creation process, using proprietary ML algorithms to rationally design multifunctional antibodies with excellent developability profiles. Biolojic’s internal pipeline focuses on autoimmune diseases and oncology.

Decoy Therapeutics

Decoy Therapeutics is a company building a modular, rapid response platform for peptide conjugate discovery leveraging AI and peptide chemistry to rapidly develop new therapies for current and emerging biological threats. Decoy Therapeutics' build peptide conjugates for antivirals and cancer therapeutics, via in silico design, automated chemistry and rapid manufacturing, streamlining preclinical, regulatory and clinical development.

Diffuse Bio

Diffuse Bio is a GenAI protein design and data company aiming to design any protein for any purpose. The company is based on the insight that GenAI models had reached an inflection point to unlock fundamental capabilities in protein design. The goal is to move biomedical protein discovery completely from the wet lab to the computer in the next 5 years or less.

Etcembly

Etcembly is combining human aptitude with the precision of AI to generate smarter and effective next-generation biologics, through rapid and scalable technological innovation. Etcembly's EMLy is a cutting-edge platform for T cell receptor and antibody discovery, paired with EMLy Co-pilot, a digital scientist interface that streamlines data exploration and therapeutic development.

Explority.ai

Explority harnesses the power of AI to identify the most promising orphan drug concepts years before they reach clinical trials. By automating the analysis of 318,000+ scientific papers annually, the company uncovers hidden opportunities — predicting FDA/EMA designations with 5.4 years of lead time and accelerating research-to-clinic timelineses.

Genilume

Genilume is a therapeutics company building a pipeline of synthetic small molecules that restore biological function through precision biomimicry. The mission is to develop a new generation of drugs that re-enable or replace broken molecular activity in complex, age-related diseases caused by functional loss, such as cancer, neurodegeneration, and immune dysfunction.

Gero

Gero is a preclinical-stage TechBio company developing proprietary therapies and collaborating with major pharmaceutical companies, to discover first-in-class drugs. The unique physics-based AI platform represents a breakthrough innovation, enabling us to understand aging and age-related diseases in ways never before possible.

Leash Biosciences

Leash Biosciences is a discovery-stage biotechnology company that seeks to improve medicinal chemistry with machine learning approaches and massive data collection. The Leash team is well-balanced: half of the members focus on experimental science, while the other half work in computational and analytical fields.

MetaNovas Biotech

Metanovas Biotech is a startup utilizing AI and knowledge graphs to develop bioactive ingredients for consumer health products. Metanovas owns proprietary NLP techniques to construct high-quality knowledge graphs from the sea of biomedical literature and develops state-of-the-art deep learning models to discover and design consumer health products with clinical efficacy.

Misogi Labs

Misogi Labs is an AI-native software company on a mission to equip drug hunters with better tech to accelerate R&D progress. The company's focus is to build a fit-for-purpose AI copilot for medicinal chemists and DMPK scientists in pharma developing small molecule drugs.

Nanyang Biologics

Nanyang Biologics is a biotechnology company pioneering the use of AI to transform drug discovery. NYB is committed to developing innovative therapeutics inspired by nature. The mission is to unlock impactful health and wellness solutions by translating nature’s medicinal insights through science, technology, and innovation.

NetTargets

NetTargets is a biotech company pioneering AI-driven drug discovery with a focus on mechanism-aware target identification and synergistic combination therapies. The mission is to bridge the gap between computational predictions and translational biology. NetTargets develops explainable AI platforms that simulate biological systems — enabling faster, more accurate and clinically relevant drug development.

Nuritas

Nuritas’ mission is to improve the lives of billions, and the vision is to provide the hero ingredient in everyday products. The proprietary platform, Magnifier, uses advanced ML and an extensive dataset of molecules to identify natural peptides with specific health benefits. The company has built the world’s largest peptide knowledge base.

Serna Bio

Serna Bio is an AI-enabled drug discovery company, developing the next generation of small molecules modulating RNA function. The core innovation is the Serna Discovery Platform, built on proprietary data and unique computational pipelines. It underpins the ability to rapidly identify functional RNA structures and generate specific, functional small molecules, all within an integrated workflow.

Theraimmune

Theraimmune's mission is to significantly improve healthspan and quality of life for women by pioneering the discovery and development of next-generation therapeutics targeting the root causes of accelerated aging during and after menopause.

Viritis

Viritis is a biotech company focused on transforming drug discovery and development. Today, developing a single antiviral drug takes more than 10 years, costs up to $2 Billion and 90% of the drugs failed to reach the market. The team at Viritis has developed a molecular platform that enables the creation of specific antiviral drugs in mere months, rather than years and with significantly reduced costs.

Winners receive

GPU cloud credits

$100,000 for the 1st place; $50,000 for the 2nd and $30,000 for the 3rd

Media exposure and promotion

Benefit from media exposure and digital promotion.

Introduction to our friendly VCs

Pitch your idea to potential investors from our trusted network.

Mentorship session

Verify ideas and get valuable insights with Nebius C level management.

SWAG and trophies

Get exclusive merch and a winner’s trophy to celebrate your success.

Prizes for everyone

All participants receive a SWAG package and free inference credits for AI Studio.

Who can apply

Each participant should have a legal entity, a functioning website, product MVP and GTM strategy.

Startups developing AI products in fields such as drug discovery, biotech, genomics and healthtech

Bootstrapped, self-funded and funded startups at any stage from pre-seed up to and including Series C.

Qualification criteria

AI powered

The product uses advanced AI/ML technologies for model training or inference and manages HPC workloads effectively.

Technological innovation

The product or service advances the industry by introducing new capabilities or significant improvements.

Functionality and advantages

The product offers superior or unique functionality, providing a competitive edge and enhancing business processes.

Performance and efficiency

The product delivers measurable results with clear metrics or case studies, improving customer performance effectively.

Global impact

The product addresses unique needs and solves specific problems, creating meaningful value on a global scale.

Market potential and business sustainability

The product demonstrates strong market demand and long-term potential, ensuring growth opportunities and a sustainable competitive advantage.

Judging committee

To join the judging committee, please reach out to dpol@nebius.com.

Dr. Ilya Burkov

Nebius

Global Head of Life Sciences and Healthcare Growth, with 15+ years of experience across clinical medicine, biotech and cloud. Previously at Cambridge University, Addenbrooke’s and AWS, he brings a unique blend of expertise to healthcare innovation. He is passionate about using AI and cloud technologies to drive scientific progress and improve patient outcomes.

Artem Elmuratov

Nebius

Head of Life Sciences and Healthcare at Nebius, with over 10 years’ experience in biotech and health tech startups as a co-founder and advisor. He specializes in AI-driven solutions for genomics and healthcare and has a strong track record in bringing innovative technologies to market.

Kelly Kung

Accel

Investor at Accel, focused on enterprise software and AI infrastructure. Previously at General Atlantic and J.P. Morgan, Kelly also worked in AI research at Harvard and held commercial roles at early-stage startups in the US and UK.

Cedric Steenbeke

NVIDIA

A healthcare tech expert with 15+ years of experience, leads NVIDIA’s Healthcare & Life Sciences startup ecosystem in EMEA. Previously at Microsoft, he shaped healthcare data platforms and AI adoption, driving digital health innovation.

Pavel Sinitcyn, PhD

Utrecht University

Assistant Professor in AI Technology for Life, and Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry groups at Utrecht University.

Dr. Andrew Buchanan

AstraZeneca

Principal Scientist at AstraZeneca with 25 years in commercial R&D. An expert in biologics targeting (ADC & RC), AI/ML innovation, and mentoring. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2020), co-author of 40+ papers and patents.

Lev Kogon, PhD

Nykode Therapeutics

PhD in Health Economics. Biotech and pharma leader with 15+ years of global experience in strategy, business development, and licensing. VP at Nykode Therapeutics. Worked for Bayer, Daiichi Sankyo and GSK.

Artemy Shumskiy

LongeVC

Senior Associate at LongeVC with profound academic and industry experience in oncology and aging biotechnology.

Yuriy Gankin, PhD

Quantori

PhD from Tufts University and an EMBA from MIT Sloan. Business leader, entrepreneur and life sciences expert with over 20 years of experience. At Quantori, he drives domain expertise and platform development. Co-founder of GGA Software Services and SciVision, and Felicitex Therapeutics.

Piotr Faba

Ardigen

Director of Software Engineering at Ardigen. Data management leader in drug discovery and development, specializing in AI-ready, cloud-native and data-centric solutions. Expert in data integration, MLOps, and advanced analytics in cloud and hybrid environments. Background in biomedical engineering.

Kamil Malisz

Ardigen

Lead Nextflow Developer & Solution Architect at Ardigen with 9 years in life science software. Expert in pipelines from phage display to WGS. Bioinformatics grad from Jagiellonian University. Strong in project management, strategy and bioinformatics R&D.

Anna Kostikova, PhD

Monte Rosa Therapeutics

PhD in computational biology and bioinformatics. Biotech and pharma leader with 15+ years of experience in AI-driven drug discovery and development. Senior Director at Monte Rosa Therapeutics. Co-founder and CSO at Asylia Diagnostics and InsideDNA. Worked for Novartis.

Tatiana Tatarinova

University of La Verne

Experienced biological expert, an Associate Professor, Biology & Fletcher Jones Endowed Chair In Computational Biology, University of La Verne.

Ram Bulusu

Warp9Ai, Alert AI

AI and Biotech innovator, leader, mentor, and advisor to VCs and startup founders. Expert in AI and Generative AI product management, go-to-market strategy and dealmaking, thought leader and keynote speaker. Two-time startup founder.

Dr. Ajay Singh

HCLTech

Global Director & Head of AI at HCLTech DPO, leads AI initiatives across industries. With 19+ years in AI, ML, RPA, and Low Code, he drives innovation, holds AI patents, and builds strategic tech partnerships to deliver business impact.

Eric Yang

Medidata Solutions

Senior Director of Data Science at Medidata Solutions, has 17+ years in pharma and healthcare, holding key roles at Aetna, Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, Covance and Harvard Medical School. He specializes in AI-driven drug discovery and Alzheimer’s research.

Claire Johnson

Nucleate

VP of AIxBio at Nucleate and PhD candidate at Harvard Medical School. Expertise in multi-modal AI/ML, genomics and precision oncology. Passionate about building AIxBio venture creation engines to empower the next generation of techbio founders.

Karina Morley MSc, MBA

Astrazeneca BioPharma

Scientific and commercial leader with 24 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. Karina leads research initiatives that connect science with market needs to drive healthcare innovation.

FAQ

Applications submission deadline was on April 30, 2025.

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