BIA Included Isomorphic Labs’ £1,6 Billion Series B in a Record Quarter for UK Biotech VC
Isomorphic Labs’ £1,6 billion round accounted for 78% of UK biotech venture investment in the second quarter
On 20 July, the BioIndustry Association reported that UK biotechnology companies raised £2,05 billion in venture capital from April through June. Of that total, £1,6 billion came from the Series B round for Isomorphic Labs, which develops AI for drug discovery.
The quarterly report from the BioIndustry Association shows how much a single deal changes the overall picture. £1,6 billion of £2,05 billion represents about 78% of all venture investment in UK biotech during the second quarter of 2026. When other equity investment is included, the total reached £2,11 billion, the highest level in five years.
On 12 May, Isomorphic Labs announced that it had closed a $2,1 billion Series B round. The company named Thrive Capital as the lead investor and said it would use the funding to expand its operations, develop its AI drug design platform, and advance programs across several therapeutic areas. BIA reports the equivalent value of the deal as £1,6 billion.
According to BIA’s calculation, venture investment excluding Isomorphic would have totaled £498 million, which is still higher than the £279 million recorded in the second quarter of 2025. The figures therefore show two things at once. Other companies also raised capital, but the five-year record was driven primarily by a single round. It would be inaccurate to treat this result as evidence that funding was equally accessible across the sector.
Funding does not by itself turn a computational prediction into a drug. A system can first propose molecules, but chemists must then produce them, and biologists must test their effects experimentally. Researchers must subsequently select promising candidates, complete preclinical development, and conduct trials. This large funding round gives Isomorphic the capacity to repeat this expensive process of moving from a hypothesis to an experimental test many times.
Neither the BIA report nor the company’s announcement describes a completed drug or a demonstrated benefit for patients. Their significance is more limited and specific. One developer of AI for drug discovery has secured enough capital to support prolonged work between computational modeling and laboratory experiments. For the UK market, this is a record quarter in the reported figures. For Isomorphic, it provides the funds needed to test whether its computational predictions hold up in experiments.