In late January 2026, Hologen, a secretive AI biotech startup co-founded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, emerged from stealth seeking to raise $150 million in a Series A round at an $850 million valuation. The company, spun out of University College London and King's College London, describes itself as a 'frontier medical AI company, a drug development and diagnostics company, and an investment company, wrapped into one.'
An Unusual Model
Hologen represents a departure from the typical AI biotech startup. Rather than focusing narrowly on a single therapeutic modality or computational approach, the company combines drug development, diagnostics, and investment activities within a single entity. The company received seed funding from SW7, a family investment office, as well as from Eric Schmidt, who co-founded the venture. This hybrid model is designed to allow Hologen to identify promising therapeutic programs, develop AI-enhanced approaches to advance them, and invest in complementary technologies and companies.
MeiraGTx Partnership
Hologen made its first major public move with a strategic collaboration with MeiraGTx, a clinical-stage gene therapy company. Under the deal, MeiraGTx contributed its Parkinson's disease gene therapy program (AAV-GAD) and obesity gene therapy assets into Hologen, receiving approximately $200 million upfront plus $230 million in committed funding. The total package fully finances the AAV-GAD gene therapy for Parkinson's disease through commercialization, representing one of the largest upfront payments in the gene therapy space.
MeiraGTx shares rallied significantly following the announcement, reflecting investor enthusiasm for the deal's financial terms and the validation of the gene therapy pipeline by Hologen's backing.
Eric Schmidt's Biotech Ambitions
The involvement of Eric Schmidt, who has increasingly focused his post-Google career on scientific and defense technology ventures, signals a growing convergence between Silicon Valley's AI expertise and biotechnology. Schmidt has been vocal about the transformative potential of AI in biological research and drug development, and Hologen represents his most significant personal investment in the space.
Academic Foundations
Hologen's origins in UCL and King's College London provide access to deep expertise in neuroscience, genomics, and clinical medicine. The UK's strong academic life sciences ecosystem has produced several successful AI drug discovery companies, including BenevolentAI and Exscientia, and Hologen aims to build on this tradition with a more ambitious scope spanning multiple therapeutic areas and business models.
Industry Context
The $150 million Series A, if completed at the reported $850 million valuation, would make Hologen one of the most highly valued AI biotech startups at such an early stage, reflecting both the celebrity co-founder premium and the market's continued appetite for AI-driven approaches to drug development. The company's focus on gene therapy in particular positions it in a therapeutic modality where AI-driven optimization of vector design, gene expression, and patient selection could have significant impact on clinical outcomes.
