Proximal Ventures Closes $27.5M Debut Fund to Back AI Life Sciences

Proximal Ventures announced on November 10, 2026 that its debut fund had closed at $27.5 million, exceeding its $25 million target, to invest in pre-seed and seed companies building AI-native infrastructure across the life-sciences value chain.

The San Francisco-based independent venture firm was founded by Sahir Raoof in 2026. Strategic partners in Fund I include Domino Lane, SignalFire, Kleiner Perkins, Bertelsmann Healthcare Investments and PagsGroup, while individual investors include Dimension co-founders Nan Li and Zavain Dar.

A Mandate Beyond Drug Discovery

The firm’s published criteria set checks at $500,000 to $1.5 million. It is looking for systems that improve discovery and clinical-trial speed, reinforce manufacturing resilience, increase supply-chain visibility and sharpen commercial execution. Those criteria give the fund an operational remit spanning clinical development, manufacturing and commercialization, rather than limiting it to the search for new molecules.

Proximal says it wants to improve the speed, cost and reliability of getting better medicines to patients by building on discovery advances and transforming the hundreds of billions of dollars spent annually on pharmaceutical services. Raoof said: “Some of the greatest opportunities lie in areas that have historically attracted less venture investment, and we see tremendous potential to build important companies throughout the value chain.”

Support Before Incorporation

Proximal begins working with founders at the idea stage, testing concepts and developing go-to-market plans. It also introduces them to pharmaceutical executives, design partners and customers, with some of this work taking place before a company is formally incorporated.

Its advisory network includes Amy Abernethy, co-founder of Highlander Health and former principal deputy commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and Kim Branson, GSK’s chief AI officer. Chronicle Bio co-founder and CEO Rohit Gupta said Proximal contributes industry relationships, knowledge of its data ecosystem and advice through its network as the company works to eliminate the burden of complex chronic disease.

Raoof’s Background and Early Deployment

Raoof has more than a decade of experience building and investing in companies serving life sciences. He was Iterative Health’s first commercial hire and vice president of business development, built biopharma research partnerships at Flatiron Health, and covered biotechnology and outsourced pharmaceutical services at J.P. Morgan. Before launching Proximal, he led techbio and pharmatech investing at SignalFire, which is also a strategic partner in the new fund.

Proximal says it has earned allocations in competitive rounds alongside multi-stage firms since it began deploying Fund I. With the fund closed, the firm is actively investing in new life-sciences companies.

Domino Lane managing partner Jim Lim said the clinical, manufacturing, regulatory and commercial work that follows discovery plays a major role in whether a drug succeeds, and that few investors understand those functions collectively. That perspective makes the advisory and customer network central to Fund I’s deployment: Proximal is pairing capital with pharmaceutical expertise for the stages between an AI-enabled discovery and a medicine reaching patients.