Xaira
Xaira is an AI Protein & Enzyme Design company based in South San Francisco, United States.
Xaira Therapeutics launched on April 23, 2024 with more than $1 billion in committed capital, led by ARCH Venture Partners and Foresite Capital, which incubated it with Foresite Labs; F-Prime, NEA, Sequoia Capital, Lux Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners also invested. It is headquartered in South San Francisco and led by chairman and chief executive Marc Tessier-Lavigne, a former chief scientific officer of Genentech and former president of Stanford University. Its co-founders include Nobel laureate David Baker and Hetu Kamisetty, and it brought in researchers from Baker's lab who built the RFdiffusion and RFantibody design models, along with a functional genomics team from Illumina. Xaira's X-Suite links X-Cell, a virtual cell model for target identification launched in March 2026; X-Design, for antibody and molecule design; X-Scientist, an agentic AI platform introduced on Oct. 21, 2026; and X-Automate, a lab automation system introduced on Oct. 23, 2026. It develops drug candidates for its own pipeline, including XA-1, its lead oncology program, and XA-4, a GPCR target.
Xaira pairs the protein-design science of David Baker, who received the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for computational protein design, with more than $1 billion in committed capital. On Oct. 2, 2026 it reported that its X-Design model produced antibody leads zero-shot for its XA-1 oncology program and for XA-4, a GPCR target on which display and immunization campaigns had failed. It won the 2026 Fierce AI Innovation Award for Preclinical Development on Sept. 2, 2026. X-Scientist and X-Automate, introduced in October 2026, connect AI-proposed experiments to robotic lab execution.
At a glance
Total raised
Undisclosed
Headcount
—
Headquarters
South San Francisco
United StatesFounded
—
Status
Private
Subsector
AI Protein & Enzyme Design
Biotech, ranked
Top 25 Biotech companies →Funding history
Total raised
—
Rounds tracked
1
Latest stage
Venture round
| Date | Stage | Amount | Valuation | Lead investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 23, 2024 | Venture round | $1B | — | ARCH Venture Partners, Foresite Capital |