• AI-driven genomic foundation model integrates wet-lab validation, population-scale genomics, and advanced machine learning to improve gene editing design at scale
• Founding team unites CRISPR pioneers and AI leaders, supported by a world-class Scientific Advisory Board including Dr. Vic Myer (former CTO, Editas Medicine) and Dr. Saar Gill (UPenn)

Cassidy Bio, a biotechnology company developing the first AI-driven genomic foundation model to enhance the design of gene editing therapies, today announced its launch and the closing of an $8 million seed financing round. The company will use the funding to advance its platform, built as a holistic solution designed to bring precision, speed, and clinical confidence to the rapidly growing field of gene therapies.

Cassidy Bio’s AI-driven genomic foundation model combines proprietary wet-lab data, population-scale genomic insights, and advanced machine learning to predict the best pairings of guides, enzymes, and delivery modalities, matching them to optimal therapeutic contexts. This creates a scalable capability that supports an end-to-end workflow for genome editing at scale. By moving from siloed trial-and-error to a holistic, predictive approach, Cassidy aims to accelerate the discovery and development of safer, more reliable genetic medicines.

“The promise of genome editing will only be realized when we move beyond isolated successes and build a foundation that can scale,” said Rom Kshuk, CEO of Cassidy Bio. “Clinical confidence at the earliest stages of design is essential if we are to unlock the full potential of this field and bring therapies to millions of patients who stand to benefit.”

Cassidy Bio was founded on the insight that genome editing therapies must be designed with confidence from the very first step. By uniting high-quality experimental data with AI that continually learns from wet-lab validation, Cassidy Bio is building a platform that addresses the core challenges of genome editing: target selection, delivery, efficacy, and specificity. This approach is already enabling precise design of guide RNAs with best-in-class editing systems, making therapeutic development more predictable, scalable, and clinically reliable.

Gene editing has proven it can cure disease but not yet at scale. Despite falling sequencing costs and an explosion of known mutations, therapy development remains limited by slow, manual design and unresolved issues of target selection, delivery, efficacy, and specificity. Cassidy Bio replaces that trial-and-error process with a predictive, AI-driven foundation model that connects targets, guides, and delivery strategies into integrated therapeutic solutions.

The $8 million investment, led by Ahren Innovation Capital, includes funding from Lool Ventures, 10D VC and via AION Lab's venture seeding track from AstraZeneca and Merck KGaA.

The company today also announced its founding team, led by serial biotech entrepreneur and CEO Rom Kshuk, CRISPR scientist Ayal Hendel, PhD, and AI pioneer Yaniv Shmueli, PhD, as well as its Scientific Advisory Board, which includes Vic Myer, PhD (former CTO of Editas Medicine), Saar Gill, MD, PhD (University of Pennsylvania), Doron Lipson, PhD (former CSO of Ultima Genomics), and Daniel O’Connell, PhD (formerly Intellia Therapeutics).

“The Cassidy team brings together leaders who have scaled biotech companies, pioneered CRISPR science, and advanced AI at the frontier,” added Oliver Hedaux, Principal at Ahren Innovation Capital. “That depth of expertise gives us confidence they can tackle one of the hardest problems in medicine with both speed and rigor.”

About Cassidy Bio

Cassidy Bio is an AI-first biotechnology company building the first programmable platform for gene editing. Cassidy Bio replaces the narrow, trial-and-error design process with large-scale prediction, simulation, and in silico validation, powered by genomic foundation models trained on proprietary biological data. The platform scales to connect across multiple components guides, editing systems, delivery systems and variant backgrounds ranking designs by safety and efficacy. Cassidy Bio’s vision is to enable not just one-off miracles, but a new generation of reliable gene editing therapies at scale.

For more information, please visit http://www.cassidybio.com/.

About Ahren Innovation Capital

Ahren is a multistage deep tech and deep science investment firm set up by Alice Newcombe-Ellis alongside co-founding Science Partners that have founded companies and/or technologies that are today valued in excess of $100BN combined. The firm was established from first principles with a mission to be disruptive as an investment institution, with a new model - genuine partnership between the creators of deep tech, and commercial, active, long-term capital - to harness tremendous global talent, creating and exponentially accelerate the next generation of great enterprises that will change the world for the better. Ahren’s Portfolio companies include Al21 Labs, Mentee Robotics, Constructive Bio, Bicycle Therapeutics, Phaidra, Hiverge, NuQuantum and Heirloom Carbon among others. Ahren is now investing from its latest fund and has over $400M of dry powder.

Learn more at www.ahreninnovationcapital.com.

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