Insider Brief
- Aether Biomachines raised $15 million, bringing total funding to $64 million, to accelerate its AI-designed protein technology for industrial and environmental use.
- The company uses AI and robotics to create nanoscale protein “assemblers” that can build advanced materials and chemicals more efficiently and sustainably than traditional manufacturing.
- Funding will support product scaling and partnerships across sectors such as aerospace, defense, sustainability, and national security.
PRESS RELEASE — Aether Biomachines, the company reindustrializing America by turning AI-designed proteins into real-world solutions, announced an additional $15 million in funding led by Tribe Capital, with participation from new and existing investors including Natural Capital, Henkel Corporation, Resilience Reserve, Shrug Capital, 4DX Ventures, Unless Partners, and Radicle Impact. The round brings Aether’s total funding to $64 million.
It’s been decades since the last industrial revolution, with only incremental improvements to chemical manufacturing being made since then due to the billions of dollars it takes to build factories on outdated chemical processes. Aether has a different approach — combining purpose-built AI and high-throughput robotics to design proteins that act like molecular assemblers, tiny machines that build, one atom at a time. These nanoscale machines have the precision and sophistication of massive chemical factories, but at a fraction of the size, enabling Aether to make new products faster, more affordably, and more sustainably.
Aether will use its latest funding to expand its Protein Function Model to rapidly design and optimize proteins for industrial and environmental applications, scale its first commercial materials products, and accelerate partnerships with companies looking to apply its AI-powered proteins across manufacturing, sustainability, and national security.
“Aether is building the foundation for the next industrial revolution,” said Pavle Jeremić, CEO and Founder of Aether Biomachines. “This funding will allow us to accelerate the discovery of proteins with transformative applications, including stronger, more scalable materials for defense and aerospace, and bring our first commercial products to more industries. Our latest funding positions us to turn breakthrough science into real-world solutions.”
Aether’s AI-designed proteins are already delivering transformative results across materials and industrial applications, including:
- Super materials: new polymer additives RapidPrint and Ultra 3D print up to 10X faster and 2X stronger than industry benchmarks, powering drones for defense and complex parts for the aerospace industry.
- Industrial solutions: seven new classes of proteins capable of extracting rare earth metals, recycling plastics, capturing carbon, breaking down “forever chemicals”, and producing complex pharmaceuticals.
These breakthroughs demonstrate the broad potential of AI-designed proteins to transform industries and reduce reliance on global supply chains.
“We’ve seen many AI companies focus on discovery, but no one has taken the leap from designing proteins to delivering physical, market-ready products until Aether,” said Arjun Sethi, Chairman at Tribe Capital. “Aether is proving that its approach isn’t just innovative in theory; it’s faster, more cost-effective, and higher-performing than traditional methods, setting the standard for what AI-driven chemistry can achieve in the real world.”
To learn more about Aether, visit: https://www.aetherbio.com
About Aether Biomachines
Aether Biomachines is an American artificial intelligence company that discovers proteins with high-impact, real-world applications. At the core of its work is a Protein Function Model that can unlock new proteins for novel functions. Aether’s AI is being built on an entirely proprietary dataset developed in-house through advanced high-throughput screening and innovative assay technology. Using this platform, Aether has developed seven new classes of proteins with capabilities ranging from refining metals at lower cost and breaking down persistent “forever chemicals” to producing industry-leading materials, enabling complex pharmaceutical manufacturing, recycling plastics, and capturing carbon dioxide. Aether is already translating its AI breakthroughs into practice, commercializing high-performance materials that can print ten times faster than current industry benchmarks while offering superior strength for the defense and aerospace industries. Learn more at https://www.aetherbio.com/.
Contacts
Media Contact
Michelle Mead
VSC for Aether Biomachines
aetherbio@vsc.co
