Basecamp Research
Category: AI in Biotech / Drug Discovery
AI-biotech company building foundation models on the world's largest proprietary genomic biodiversity dataset to design new medicines, including programmable gene-insertion therapeutics. Basecamp Research was founded in 2019. The company is led by Glen Gowers. Based in London, United Kingdom. Team size: 101-500. Total funding raised: $85M. Latest round: Strategic Investment. Key investors include Singular, True Ventures, Hummingbird Ventures, S32, Redalpine, Valo Health, NVIDIA (NVentures), Blue Horizon Corporation, Systemiq Capital, Paul Polman (angel).
- Founded
- 2019
- Headquarters
- London, United Kingdom
- Team size
- 101-500
- Total funding
- $85M
Value proposition
Basecamp Research collects genomic sequence data from previously unsampled biodiversity worldwide and uses it to train proprietary AI models (akin to GPT-scale models for biology) that design programmable gene-insertion enzymes and novel proteins for therapeutic, industrial, and diagnostic applications — offering an alternative to CRISPR-based approaches capable of much larger genetic edits.
Products and solutions
BaseGraph™ (AI protein/enzyme design platform), EDEN-AI™ (disease-focused AI platform), proprietary programmable gene-insertion AI model family (GPT-4-scale, trained on Nvidia GPUs), world's largest curated biological sequence database (100M+ species sampled).
Unique value
Owns the entire data pipeline — from proprietary field-collected genomic biodiversity data to model training — enabling smaller, more capital-efficient foundation models than US AI labs building on public data alone.
Target customer
Pharmaceutical and biotech companies (partnership/licensing model), plus academic and industrial research collaborators.
Industries served
Biotech / Life Sciences, Pharmaceutical R&D, Gene Therapy, Drug Discovery
Technology advantage
Proprietary, exclusively-sourced genomic biodiversity dataset (100M+ species) not available to competitors; tight co-design of dataset size and model scale; trained on NVIDIA GPU infrastructure; lab-generated post-training data.
How they differentiate
Unlike competitors relying primarily on public protein databases (e.g., AlphaFold-derived data), Basecamp Research controls a proprietary, field-collected biodiversity dataset spanning 100M+ species, enabling smaller, cheaper models with comparable capability, and focuses specifically on programmable gene-insertion (vs. CRISPR-style editing).
Main competitors
Isomorphic Labs, EvolutionaryScale, Latent Labs, Chai Discovery
Key partnerships
NVIDIA (NVentures investment + GPU/model co-development, presented at JPM Healthcare Conference 2026), Broad Institute (David Liu lab collaboration on genetic medicines), Microsoft (co-authored research paper), Anthropic, Ultima Genomics, PacBio (100M-species genomic data collaboration per Fortune), named in UK government's £2bn Nvidia AI investment initiative alongside Revolut and Wayve.
Major milestones
2021: Series A (£16.14M), Oct 2024: $60M Series B led by Singular, collaboration with Broad Institute (David Liu) on genetic medicines, Jan 2026: unveiled world's first AI models for programmable gene insertion, confirmed NVIDIA NVentures strategic investment, presented at JPM Healthcare Conference with NVIDIA/Microsoft co-authored paper, named among UK startups in Nvidia's £2bn UK AI investment initiative.
Growth metrics
~$85M total raised across 3 rounds since 2021; grew to 51-200 employees; models trained at GPT-4-scale training-data volume; claims 97-100% accuracy in lab-tested peptide/pathogen-kill design tasks.
Market positioning
Frontier AI-for-biology company positioned at the intersection of genomic data infrastructure and generative therapeutics design, targeting large unmet need in genetic disease treatment beyond CRISPR's scope.
Geographic focus
Global, UK/Europe headquartered with US life-sciences/pharma partnerships and NVIDIA (US) backing.
Patents and IP
Dedicated Senior VP of IP (ex-Tome Biosciences, Vertex, Biogen) suggests active patent strategy around discovered enzymes/proteins; no public patent numbers verified.
About Glen Gowers
Co-founder; background in Engineering Biology (Oxford University, Imperial College London, GSK). Led the first fully off-grid DNA sequencing expedition on Western Europe's largest ice cap.
Latest news about Basecamp Research
More AI in Biotech / Drug Discovery companies
Official website: https://basecamp-research.com