UK backs Potential Sciences with funding and supercomputer access

Potential Sciences has secured investment from the UK government’s Sovereign AI venture fund as part of an eight-figure funding round. The support includes access to computing resources through the AI Research Resource, the national supercomputing infrastructure that includes Isambard-AI in Bristol. The government has not disclosed its investment amount, citing commercial sensitivity.

The startup is developing an AI model grounded in fundamental physics rather than relying on previous experimental data. Its approach aims to address a bottleneck in chemical and drug discovery, where generating laboratory data can be slow and expensive. Potential Sciences says its technology could make the AI calculations needed to design chemicals 100 times cheaper, potentially opening research into treatments currently considered uneconomical.

Founder and CEO Hatem Helal says the company rebuilt quantum chemistry software for GPUs to make highly accurate calculations affordable at the scale required by AI. Other investors include Twin Path Ventures, Odyssey, Portfolio Ventures, Blue Wire Capital, rule30, Nauta Capital and Lightfield Equity, alongside angel investors Patrick Collison and Chris Gibson.

The backing follows a further £140 million commitment to Sovereign AI in the Budget, including £60 million for investments and £80 million for its R&D Procurement Scheme. The initiative is also expanding into physical and industrial AI, including robotics, autonomous systems and advanced manufacturing.