Mandrake Bio raises Rs 16 crore to build AI-powered gene-editing platform for agriculture and medicine
Bengaluru-based Mandrake Bio secures Rs 16 crore to accelerate the development of AI-designed gene-editing enzymes for crop improvement and medical therapy.
Bengaluru-based startup Mandrake Bio has officially announced the successful closing of a Rs 16 crore funding round. The investment was co-led by early-stage venture firms Activate, founded by Aakrit Vaish, and Antler India. The round also saw significant participation from Spectrum Impact, DeVC, and a group of angel investors, including biotech veteran Vijay Chandru and entrepreneur Sanjiv Rangrass. The company intends to utilize this fresh capital to expand its artificial intelligence and biophysics teams and to accelerate the "wet-lab" validation process for its proprietary platform.
Founded in 2025 by Tanay Lohia and ICAR scientist Kutubuddin Molla, Mandrake Bio has assembled a 10-member team composed of AI researchers, computational biologists, and molecular scientists. The startup’s core objective is to leverage generative artificial intelligence to design entirely new gene-editing enzymes, diverging from the traditional reliance on naturally occurring systems like CRISPR-Cas9, which are often expensive and difficult to adapt for diverse applications.
Chief Executive Tanay Lohia explained that the platform drastically compresses the development timeline. While researchers previously spent years searching for enzymes in nature, the company’s generative AI can now design new enzymes in just two to three weeks. By training open-source protein language models on its own metagenomic database, the platform identifies top protein candidates through simulation, which significantly reduces the need for costly and time-consuming laboratory experiments.
In the agricultural sector, this technology promises a major shift in crop development. Current workflows to improve crop varieties typically require seven to eight years; Mandrake Bio aims to shorten this timeline to approximately two years. This acceleration could prove vital for developing climate-resilient crops that can withstand evolving environmental pressures. The startup expects to see its first wet-lab validation results within the next two months.
Beyond agriculture, the technology holds profound implications for medical therapies. Lohia noted that existing gene-editing therapies currently cost millions of dollars, but the use of specifically engineered enzymes could eventually make these treatments much more affordable. By optimizing both the design process and the resulting enzyme efficacy, Mandrake Bio aims to lower treatment costs significantly, marking a major milestone in the advancement of practical biotechnology.