The global effort to tackle climate change faces a daunting challenge: finding and deploying new materials capable of efficiently capturing carbon or enabling sustainable technologies. Traditional materials science moves at a painstakingly slow pace, often requiring years or even decades of research, an approach ill-suited to the urgency of today’s climate crisis.
Enter CuspAI, a startup revolutionising this process with advanced artificial intelligence. The company has built a platform that functions like a “search engine for molecules,” where scientists can input desired material properties and instantly receive AI-optimised candidate structures. By dramatically accelerating materials discovery, CuspAI is positioning itself at the forefront of climate tech innovation.
Last month, there were reports that CuspAI is eyeing to secure $100 million in funding. Now, the UK-based deep-tech startup pioneering AI-driven material discovery has raised $100 million in its Series A round. The financing was co-led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Singapore’s Temasek, with backing from NVentures (NVIDIA’s VC arm), Samsung Ventures, Hyundai Motor Group, and a strong roster of global investors. The round follows its $30 million seed just a year ago.
Angel investors include Durk Kingma (OpenAI Co-Founder), Zoubin Ghahramani (Google DeepMind VP Research), Arash Ferdowsi (Founder of Dropbox), Thomas Wolf (Founder of Hugging Face) and Victor Riparbelli (Founder and CEO of Synthesia).
With this funding, CuspAI will now look to expand its global footprint, including scaling its operations in the US and Asia to serve increasing customer demand.
Who is behind the team?
CuspAI was co-founded in 2024 by Professor Max Welling, a renowned machine learning researcher who has held senior roles at Microsoft Research and Qualcomm, and Dr. Chad Edwards, a chemist-turned-entrepreneur who previously scaled quantum computing unicorn Quantinuum. Their combined expertise in science and commercialisation gives CuspAI a unique edge in translating cutting-edge research into real-world impact.
To support the company’s rapidly expanding commercialisation efforts, two globally recognised leaders in semiconductors and energy joined CuspAI’s advisory board. They include Martin van den Brink, former President and CTO of ASML, a key architect of Europe’s semiconductor leadership and Lord John Browne, former BP CEO, Chair of the Francis Crick Institute, and current Chair of the UK Government’s Council for Science and Technology.
They join existing advisors Prof. Geoffrey Hinton and Prof. Yann LeCun alongside award-winning “godfathers of AI” – Prof. Kristin Persson and Verity Harding.
AI ‘search engine’ for the material world
CuspAI’s platform acts like a search engine for materials, enabling customers to specify the exact properties they need and generating new, synthesisable candidates up to 10x faster than traditional discovery methods. Its technology is materials agnostic, with potential for impact across multiple industries where breakthroughs can unlock billions in value.
What’s next for CuspAI?
With this funding, the company aims to establish itself as the premier “materials-on-demand” platform, an AI-driven solution for practical challenges in clean energy, advanced manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and more. Its primary focus remains climate-related materials, especially low-cost, efficient compounds for carbon capture and storage.
CuspAI Co-founder and CTO Max Welling said: “Humanity faces a compelling opportunity: effective, thoughtful AI development could help solve some of our toughest global challenges, from developing sustainable energy systems to curbing climate change. CuspAI is building the next-generation tools to make this possible. Breakthrough materials could be the solution to delivering large-scale scientific and environmental impact, alongside progress for industry. Our team is uniquely positioned to deliver on that potential.”
CuspAI CEO and Co-founder Chad Edwards said: “Next-generation AI compute, clean air and water and sustainable energy – these multi-billion-dollar global challenges share a common barrier: materials. CuspAI’s mission is to change that. In just a year, we’ve gone from concept to partnerships with world leaders in automotive, semiconductors, energy, and climate. This funding allows us to scale our platform and deliver transformative materials to market faster. We’re grateful for the support of our investors and the strategic backing from our customers as we accelerate into our next phase of growth.”
Lila Tretikov, Partner and Head of AI Strategy at NEA and former Deputy CTO at Microsoft, who will join the CuspAI board, said: “AI’s most profound promise emerges when it moves beyond the everyday and becomes a catalyst for discovery, deepening our command of chemistry, biology, and physics, and accelerating the design of materials that redefine what is possible. CuspAI harnessed this power to shutter long-accepted engineering limits, enabling breakthroughs across industries that can elevate the quality of life for generations to come in months rather than decades.”
Brooke Seawell, NEA Venture Partner, said: “AI isn’t just promising a revolution in materials science, it’s already delivering one. By decoding the complexity of our material world, it’s starting to unlock breakthroughs from climate mitigation to faster, more efficient computing. With their unique approach and bold vision, the CuspAI team is well-positioned in this transformative space and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
A spokesperson for Samsung Ventures said: “CuspAI is developing a foundational platform at the critical intersection of artificial intelligence and materials science. We believe their approach has the potential to unlock significant innovation across a range of industries, and we are pleased to support them as they scale their vision.”
Keith Noh, Vice President, Head of ZERO1NE Group at Hyundai Motor Group, said: “Hyundai Motor Group is advancing human progress through innovation and this requires embracing convictions that challenge the status quo. With CuspAI as our partner, we will leverage the power of AI to advance our performance and sustainability goals. We believe novel materials offer an extraordinary opportunity to accelerate progress towards a better, cleaner, more efficient future.”
Antti Salminen, CEO of Kemira, said: “We’re proud to be a commercial partner of CuspAI – we chose them because we see the clear potential for AI to speed up the precision and impact of new materials discovery and they have fast emerged as the leaders in this approach.
