Boltz
Category: AI in Healthcare
An AI biotechnology company developing open-source biomolecular foundation models designed to predict the structure and interactions of proteins, DNA, RNA, and small molecules to accelerate drug discovery. Boltz was founded in 2024. The company is led by Gabriele Corso. Based in Cambridge, USA. Team size: 10-20. Total funding raised: $28.0M. Latest round: Seed round (Jan 2025). Key investors include ["Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Bio + Health","Pfizer","BoxGroup","GreatPoint Ventures"].
- Founded
- 2024
- Headquarters
- Cambridge, USA
- Team size
- 10-20
- Total funding
- $28.0M
Value proposition
Democratizes state-of-the-art structural biology by providing open-source, high-fidelity foundation models that rival proprietary systems like AlphaFold 3, enabling researchers to predict complex molecular interactions without restrictive licensing.
Products and solutions
["Boltz-1 (Open-source biomolecular foundation model)","Boltz-2 (Next-generation iteration in development)","DiffDock (Industry-standard molecular docking tool)","Open-source inference code and model weights"]
Unique value
Boltz is the first to provide a fully open-source alternative to Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold 3, offering the community both the model weights and the code for commercial applications, which was previously a major barrier in the field.
Target customer
Pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology startups, academic research institutions, and drug discovery platforms.
Industries served
["Biotechnology","Pharmaceuticals","Life Sciences","Healthcare AI","Academic Research"]
Technology advantage
Leverages proprietary geometric deep learning architectures and generative modeling expertise from the creators of DiffDock. Their 'open-science' business model attracts top-tier talent and rapid industry adoption, validated by a strategic partnership with Pfizer.
How they differentiate
Boltz differentiates through an 'open-science' approach, providing both model weights and training code under a commercial-friendly license. While competitors like DeepMind initially restricted AlphaFold 3's commercial use, Boltz offers a high-fidelity, open-source alternative that matches state-of-the-art performance in predicting complex molecular interactions.
Main competitors
["Google DeepMind (AlphaFold 3)","EvolutionaryScale (ESM3)","Chai Discovery (Chai-1)","Profluent"]
Key partnerships
["Pfizer (Strategic partner for biomolecular AI development)","Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Bio + Health (Lead Investor)","MIT Jameel Clinic (Academic collaboration and research roots)","BoxGroup and GreatPoint Ventures (Investment partners)"]
Notable customers
["Pfizer (Strategic Partner)"]
Major milestones
["Released Boltz-1 as an open-source rival to AlphaFold 3 in October 2024","Secured $28M Seed funding led by a16z Bio + Health in January 2025","Established a strategic partnership with Pfizer to advance biomolecular AI models"]
Growth metrics
Rapid community adoption of Boltz-1; founders' previous research (DiffDock) has over 4,500 citations.
Market positioning
Open-source challenger in the AI-driven structural biology and drug discovery market.
Geographic focus
Global (via open-source distribution) with a primary corporate focus on the North American biotechnology hub (Cambridge, MA).
Patents and IP
No specific registered patents disclosed; the company currently prioritizes an open-source IP strategy to drive industry-wide adoption.
About Gabriele Corso
Gabriele Corso is the CEO and Co-founder of Boltz. He holds a PhD from MIT CSAIL, where he specialized in generative models and geometric deep learning for structural biology. He is the lead developer of the Boltz-1 and Boltz-2 biomolecular foundation models and the creator of DiffDock, a widely used tool for molecular docking. His research has been cited over 4,500 times, and he was recognized in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Healthcare & Science.
Official website: https://boltz.bio/