Pharma has never been a great software customer. It has, however, spent decades writing big checks for services. That gap is the whole thesis behind a new $27.5 million venture fund, and it’s a more interesting idea than most of the AI-for-drug-discovery pitches in circulation.
The fund is Proximal Ventures, led by Sahir Raoof, a former SignalFire investor who also held executive roles at two healthcare startups. He closed it while first-time fund managers face one of the toughest fundraising climates in years. Established firms keep drawing capital. Newcomers mostly don’t.
Why services, not software
Drugmakers have long outsourced big parts of development. Specialized providers synthesize thousands of molecular compounds, work out how to manufacture a drug at scale, and analyze clinical trial data. “For a long time, the assumption was that pharma is not a great buyer of software, but a really good buyer of services,” Raoof told TechCrunch.
His argument is that AI can automate much of this work. A startup that delivers the same output faster and at lower cost can capture a share of pharma’s service spending, which runs to billions of dollars. Raoof points to law and finance, where some of AI’s most valuable uses so far have been in service-heavy work. He sees pharma as the next candidate.
For clinicians and developers, the practical question is whether faster, cheaper preclinical and trial-support work actually shortens the path to a approved drug. That remains unproven. But the economics of the argument are easy to follow.
The portfolio so far
Proximal invests at pre-seed and seed stage, with checks of $500,000 to $1.5 million. It has backed seven startups. One is ChronicleBio, co-founded by former OpenAI executive Fidji Simo, which uses AI to analyze biological and medical data to better understand chronic diseases and identify possible treatments.
Why investors trusted a first-timer
Raoof’s résumé is built around selling into healthcare. He spent two years as a principal at SignalFire. Before that he led business development at clinical trial recruitment startup Iterative Health, and he oversaw partnerships at Flatiron Health, the oncology data company Roche acquired for $1.9 billion in 2018.
That background matters because, as he put it, “If you’re building a company that’s selling into the life sciences, one of the hardest things to do is starting that initial commercial flywheel.” Limited partners appear to have bought the idea that he can spot strong startups and help them land their first customers.
Backers include SignalFire, Kleiner Perkins, Bertelsmann Healthcare Investments, and individuals such as Dimension Capital co-founders Nan Li and Zavain Dar.
Amy Abernethy is also an investor. She is a co-founder of Highlander Health and a former principal deputy commissioner of the FDA, and she was chief medical officer at Flatiron when she first met Raoof. She told TechCrunch his skill at building relationships and spotting bottlenecks left a lasting impression. She is convinced that, together with his grasp of what the market needs, those traits will make him a successful investor. She added that they have helped Proximal invest alongside better-known, much larger funds.
What to watch
A $27.5 million fund is small, and the thesis is a bet on buyer behavior as much as technology. Pharma procurement is cautious, and regulators will care how AI-generated work is validated. Still, the focus on a clear budget line, rather than a vague promise of faster discovery, gives founders a concrete first sale to chase.