Soley Therapeutics Lands $200M to Advance AI-Discovered Cancer Drugs

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA – January 07, 2026 – Soley Therapeutics, a company leveraging artificial intelligence to interpret cellular stress, today announced the closing of a $200 million Series C financing round. The substantial investment, led by Surveyor Capital, is set to propel the company’s first-in-class oncology programs into human clinical trials and further scale its proprietary drug discovery platform.

The financing marks a significant milestone for the South San Francisco-based firm, which aims to redefine how medicines are discovered by observing cellular responses at an unprecedented scale. The proceeds will be primarily allocated to advancing two internally developed cancer therapies through Investigational New Drug (IND)-enabling studies and into Phase 1 trials. Funds will also support the expansion of its pipeline into non-oncology areas, including neurodegenerative and metabolic diseases.

Decoding Cellular Stress with AI

At the heart of Soley Therapeutics is a unique platform that sidesteps the traditional target-first approach to drug discovery. Instead of starting with a known biological target, the company uses living human cells as powerful sensors. Its automated, high-throughput system exposes these cells to hundreds of thousands of chemical compounds each week, capturing vast amounts of data on how they respond over time.

This is where the company’s technological prowess comes into play. Using proprietary computer vision and artificial intelligence, the platform analyzes thousands of cellular features to generate what it calls a “SoleyMap™”—a compact, structured signature of a cell's response to a drug. These AI models can then interpret these signatures to differentiate between a compound that selectively kills a cancer cell and one that is broadly toxic, or one that pushes a diseased cell back toward a healthy state. This method allows Soley to uncover novel biological mechanisms and drug candidates that might be missed by conventional screening methods that are locked into preconceived targets.

This biology-first, tech-enabled strategy is built on decades of foundational research by its co-founders, which includes over 130 scientific publications. The platform effectively translates the complex language of cellular stress into actionable insights, accelerating hit-finding, mechanism-of-action studies, and ultimately, the design of new molecules.

A Landmark Investment in AI-Driven Biology

The $200 million financing is a powerful vote of confidence from a syndicate of both life sciences and technology-focused investors. Surveyor Capital, an arm of the global alternative investment firm Citadel, led the round. They were joined by new investors HRTG Partners and RWN Management. Crucially, the round also saw strong participation from existing investors, including the Doug Leone Family Fund, Breyer Capital, and GordonMD Global Investment® LP, signaling sustained belief in the company’s long-term vision.

Surveyor Capital has a history of backing innovative biotech companies with promising technologies in oncology and neurology, making their role as primary investor a significant validation of Soley's platform. The investment reflects a broader industry trend where venture capital is increasingly betting on AI and machine learning to solve the efficiency and cost challenges that have long plagued pharmaceutical R&D.

“We built Soley to measure how living human cells, in health and disease, respond to drug exposure and determine their fate. We then translate this cellular information into a robust portfolio of novel drug candidates across a broad range of disease areas and indications,” said Yerem Yeghiazarians, M.D., Co-founder and CEO of Soley Therapeutics. “We are thrilled by the strong investor support from life sciences and technology focused funds as we advance our lead programs into the clinic and expand our platform to continue building a first-in-class pipeline.”

A Pipeline Aimed at Intractable Diseases

With its war chest replenished, Soley is focused on translating its platform's discoveries into tangible therapies for patients. The immediate priority is its oncology pipeline, which features two oral small molecules aimed at novel, previously considered “undruggable” mechanisms.

The company’s lead asset, targeting Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), has shown promising preclinical efficacy and is on track for an IND filing with the FDA in 2026. A second oncology asset, aimed at solid tumors, is now entering the IND-enabling stage—the final phase of preclinical testing required before human trials can begin.

A key differentiator highlighted by the company is the high selectivity of these candidates, which have demonstrated potent anti-cancer activity in preclinical models while remaining non-cytotoxic to healthy, non-cancerous cells. This could translate to more effective treatments with fewer side effects.

Beyond cancer, the funding will fuel discovery programs in other areas of high unmet medical need. Soley is developing stress-reducing drug candidates for complex neurodegenerative disorders and metabolic diseases. The firm is also exploring unique applications of its platform in fields like hair regeneration, all driven by its core competency in understanding and modulating cellular stress responses to reverse disease states.

The Computational Backbone: Oracle and NVIDIA

Generating and interpreting petabytes of biological data requires immense computational power. Soley has fortified its technological foundation through a strategic collaboration with tech giants Oracle and NVIDIA. The company deploys a full-stack AI solution that leverages Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) for secure and scalable data management and NVIDIA's cutting-edge accelerated computing platforms.

This includes the use of the latest NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs and the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software suite, which provides optimized tools for developing and deploying complex AI models. This powerful tech stack enables Soley to rapidly process its massive imaging datasets, train its proprietary models, and accelerate the entire cycle from data capture to therapeutic insight. The collaboration ensures the company has the industrial-scale infrastructure needed to stay at the forefront of AI-driven drug discovery.

Science-First Leadership and Credibility

While Soley is a tech-enabled company, its leadership emphasizes a “science-first” culture. The company was co-founded by CEO Dr. Yerem Yeghiazarians, a cardiologist and stem cell pioneer, and Dr. Kurosh Ameri, a cancer biologist renowned for his work in tumor anoxia. Their combined research into how cells sense and respond to stress forms the scientific bedrock of the company’s platform.

This deep scientific expertise is bolstered by a cross-disciplinary team and a distinguished board of scientific advisors. The advisory board includes world-class leaders in drug development, AI, and clinical medicine, such as Dr. Keith Flaherty of Harvard Medical School, Dr. Peter Libby of Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Dr. Daniel Von Hoff of the Translational Genomics Research Institute. This fusion of profound biological understanding with high-performance computing and AI is what positions Soley Therapeutics to potentially uncover a new generation of medicines for humanity's most challenging diseases.