London-based Basecamp Research has secured $140 million in a funding round led by S32. Other participants include Nvidia, the NATO Innovation Fund, Redalpine, and Anthropic's Anthology Fund. The company intends to use these funds to advance its biological AI models, known as EDEN, and to progress its internal therapy candidates toward clinical development.
The startup focuses on training AI models using genetic data collected from diverse global habitats, including rainforests, oceans, and volcanic regions. Basecamp collaborates with a network of research organizations spanning more than 30 countries across all seven continents to gather these samples. The company's dataset currently contains approximately 15 trillion tokens, where each token represents a DNA building block.
Basecamp aims to develop tools for cell therapies, specifically designing enzymes that can insert genetic information into human cells to treat inherited diseases. The company is also working on AI-generated antibiotics. In laboratory tests involving mice with multidrug-resistant bacteria, a candidate named EDEN-7 demonstrated efficacy comparable to last-resort antibiotics.
The company's long-term goal is to make biology programmable, allowing for the design of specific molecules based on disease prompts. As of September 2026, Basecamp has six programs in its therapy pipeline, all of which are currently in the lead optimization stage. The development process remains in the early phases, with significant work required before clinical trials can begin.
