Is Cradle profitable in 2026?

Cradle does not disclose revenue, and CEO Stef van Grieken has declined to state figures publicly, as reported by Sifted on 2025-06-27. The company is privately held and venture-funded, with no profitability data available in any public source as of mid-2026.

Has Cradle raised a Series C round?

No. As of July 2026, Cradle's most recent funding event remains its $73M Series B led by IVP, announced 2024-11-25, bringing total funding to over $100M. No subsequent priced round has been publicly reported in the 20 months since.

Who are Cradle's biggest competitors?

Cradle competes directly with Chai Discovery and Nabla Bio, both pure-play AI protein design platforms, plus Absci and Generate:Biomedicines which combine AI with their own drug pipelines. Chai Discovery had signed Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Novartis by 2026, per Index Ventures.

Could AI replace Cradle's protein design platform?

Unlikely soon. Cradle's CEO argues in a 2026-07-14 R&D World interview that frontier models like AlphaFold3 and Chai-2 are commodity ingredients, while the real bottleneck is proprietary wet-lab data and slow, costly experimental feedback loops that AI agents cannot shortcut without lab infrastructure.

Who owns Cradle and who funds it?

Cradle is privately owned, founded May 2021 by Stef van Grieken and Elise de Reus. It is backed by Index Ventures, Kindred Capital, and IVP, which led its $73M Series B on 2024-11-25, the largest of its three funding rounds totaling over $100M.

Which pharma companies work with Cradle?

Cradle's disclosed pharma partners include Bayer (3-year antibody discovery collaboration announced 2026-01-07) and H. Lundbeck (two CNS antibody programs, 2026-06-03), alongside named customers Novo Nordisk, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, Novonesis, Grifols and Ginkgo Bioworks.

AI companies and labs · United Kingdom

Cradle

cradle.bio ↗

Cradle sells AI software that designs and optimizes proteins for pharma R&D teams.

Losing its protection

Assessed 21 July 2026 · Evidence as of 21 July 2026

The structural protection is eroding.

On the recordSince 21 July 2026 · Checkable from H2 2026 · Every call on the record Checkpoint: Series C raise timing and pricing, plus Bayer/Lundbeck renewal decisions

The call

Cradle has real pharma deals and private data, but sits in a crowded field of similarly funded AI protein design rivals with no new capital raise in 20 months.

Cradle makes artificial intelligence software that helps pharmaceutical companies design new drugs faster by learning from real lab experiments. It is hard to replace because it has built real relationships with major pharma companies like Bayer and Lundbeck, with long-term contracts, and it keeps its lab data secret so competitors cannot use it to train their own systems. However, Cradle faces serious competition from other AI companies doing almost the same thing, like Chai Discovery and Nabla Bio, and these rivals have more money in the bank while Cradle has not raised new funding in over a year and a half. The one thing that could change everything is if Cradle raises significant new funding soon and signs up more than half of the top 25 pharma companies as customers, which would prove its lab data advantage is creating real lock-in rather than just temporary deals.

Why

AI pressure: Chai Discovery, Nabla Bio, and open frontier models like AlphaFold3 and Chai-2. Rivals run near-identical AI design platforms, and public models could let pharma build the modeling layer in-house. Could AI do the core job? Only partly.

Bigger players: Isomorphic Labs (Alphabet-backed) and big pharma building internal AI teams. Alphabet-backed rivals and pharma's own AI groups could pull budget away from independent platforms like Cradle. Could a giant copy it? No, they are blocked.

What protects it. Proprietary wet-lab data retrained biweekly, contractual IP-neutrality promises, and multi-year deals with Bayer and Lundbeck.

What would change this call

Cradle announces a Series C round within 12 months. Shows Cradle can match rivals' war chests instead of falling behind on funding.
Cradle's top-pharma logo count moves past 8/25 or a named logo defects to Chai or Nabla. Tests whether Cradle is pulling ahead or losing ground in the finite 25-buyer market.
Bayer or Lundbeck publicly expands, renews, or ends its collaboration with Cradle. Shows whether Cradle's flagship pharma partnerships are deepening or stalling.

Key numbers

$73M Series B raised, over $100M total funding (2024-11-25)
8 of top 25 global pharma companies are customers (2026-06-03)
Paying SaaS projects grew 15x year over year (2025-06-27)

Named risks

No Series C raised in 20 months while rivals Chai Discovery and Nabla Bio stockpile capital. Severity: high
Contested 25-buyer pharma market with near-identical competitor moats offering no clear leader. Severity: high
Revenue undisclosed, limiting external validation of growth claims. Severity: medium
Frontier biomolecular models could commoditize the modeling layer Cradle depends on. Severity: medium
Marquee pharma logos could be won by better-funded pure-play rivals. Severity: medium

Rivals, as read in July 2026

Rival	Direction	Evidence
Chai Discovery	gaining on	Signed Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Novartis deals by 2026, per Index Ventures 2026-07-14
Nabla Bio	gaining on	Signed Takeda deal with over $1B potential milestones, per aiwiki.ai 2026-06-07
Absci	contesting	Runs AI plus wet lab plus own pipeline, competing for same pharma buyers
Generate:Biomedicines	contesting	Anti-TSLP antibody in Phase 3, combines AI, wet labs, and own pipeline
Isomorphic Labs	gaining on	Larger, well-capitalized entrant moving into lead optimization per contrary.com report

Questions people ask

Is Cradle profitable in 2026?: Cradle does not disclose revenue, and CEO Stef van Grieken has declined to state figures publicly, as reported by Sifted on 2025-06-27. The company is privately held and venture-funded, with no profitability data available in any public source as of mid-2026.
Has Cradle raised a Series C round?: No. As of July 2026, Cradle's most recent funding event remains its $73M Series B led by IVP, announced 2024-11-25, bringing total funding to over $100M. No subsequent priced round has been publicly reported in the 20 months since.
Who are Cradle's biggest competitors?: Cradle competes directly with Chai Discovery and Nabla Bio, both pure-play AI protein design platforms, plus Absci and Generate:Biomedicines which combine AI with their own drug pipelines. Chai Discovery had signed Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Novartis by 2026, per Index Ventures.
Could AI replace Cradle's protein design platform?: Unlikely soon. Cradle's CEO argues in a 2026-07-14 R&D World interview that frontier models like AlphaFold3 and Chai-2 are commodity ingredients, while the real bottleneck is proprietary wet-lab data and slow, costly experimental feedback loops that AI agents cannot shortcut without lab infrastructure.
Who owns Cradle and who funds it?: Cradle is privately owned, founded May 2021 by Stef van Grieken and Elise de Reus. It is backed by Index Ventures, Kindred Capital, and IVP, which led its $73M Series B on 2024-11-25, the largest of its three funding rounds totaling over $100M.
Which pharma companies work with Cradle?: Cradle's disclosed pharma partners include Bayer (3-year antibody discovery collaboration announced 2026-01-07) and H. Lundbeck (two CNS antibody programs, 2026-06-03), alongside named customers Novo Nordisk, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, Novonesis, Grifols and Ginkgo Bioworks.

Timeline

2026-06-03Cradle partners with H. Lundbeck on two CNS antibody programs
2026-03-03Former Novo Nordisk CSO Marcus Schindler joins Cradle advisory board
2026-01-07Bayer enters 3-year strategic collaboration with Cradle on antibody discovery
2025-12-16Cradle states headcount doubled in 2025 with US operations expansion
2025-06-27Sifted reports paying SaaS projects grew 15x year-over-year
2024-12-09Cradle wins Adaptyv Bio protein-design competition with EGFR binder
2024-11-25Cradle closes $73M Series B led by IVP, total funding over $100M
2023-11-28Cradle raises $24M Series A led by Index Ventures
2022-11-16Cradle raises Ã¢â‚¬5.5M Seed round led by Index Ventures and Kindred Capital

Revision history

21 July 2026

First assessed. Losing its protection. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.

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