Mandrake Bio Raises ₹16 Crore for AI Gene Editing

The Bengaluru startup will use generative AI to build next-generation gene-editing tools for agriculture and medicine.

Bengaluru-based biotechnology startup Mandrake Bio has closed a ₹16 crore ($1.9 million) seed funding round led by specialized deep-tech funds and prominent angel investors. The startup intends to leverage generative AI models to design novel, highly precise gene-editing proteins that overcome the current limitations of standard CRISPR systems.

Mandrake Bio's proprietary platform, BioEdit-GPT, uses transformer-based models trained on massive genomic datasets to predict how changes in protein structures affect their target editing efficiency and off-target safety.

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AI-Driven Precision vs. Traditional Gene Editing

Traditional gene editing relies on discovering existing proteins in nature (like Cas9 in bacteria) and manually engineering them—a slow, trial-and-error process. Mandrake Bio bypasses this bottleneck by designing proteins from scratch.

| Feature | Traditional CRISPR Pipelines | Mandrake Bio AI Platform | |---|---|---| | Discovery Method | Screening natural bacterial strains | Generative AI structural design | | Optimization Time | 18 - 36 months | 4 - 8 weeks | | Off-Target Mutations | Moderate risk (requires manual screening) | Low risk (AI-predicted structural fit) | | Applications | Primarily human therapeutics | Ag-tech crop resilience + target medicine |

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Target Areas: Agriculture and Medicine

Mandrake Bio is focusing its AI-designed proteins on two massive sectors:

1. Climate-Resilient Agriculture Developing crop variants that can withstand extreme temperature fluctuations and high soil salinity. The startup is collaborating with agricultural research institutes to edit crops without introducing foreign DNA, satisfying strict non-GMO regulatory pathways.

2. Precision Human Therapeutics Creating safer gene-delivery mechanisms that minimize off-target cuts, which are the primary source of safety concerns in clinical human gene-editing trials.

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The Bengaluru BioTech Boom

Bengaluru is rapidly establishing itself as the synthetic biology capital of India, combining the city's software engineering talent with robust biological lab infrastructure.

"We are witnessing a convergence of computer science and biology. By treating DNA as code that can be generated and optimized, we can solve critical global challenges in food security and healthcare," said Dr. Sunita Rao, Co-founder of Mandrake Bio.

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