Catenaa, Wednesday, October 29, 2025-Valthos, a new AI-driven biodefense company, emerged from stealth Friday with $30 million in funding from the OpenAI Startup Fund, Lux Capital, and Founders Fund to accelerate detection and neutralization of biological threats.
The startup, co-founded by Kathleen McMahon, formerly of Palantir, and Tess van Stekelenburg, a computational neuroscience researcher at Oxford, aims to shorten the response time to pathogens from months to hours.
Its AI systems analyze biological sequences and update medical countermeasures in real time for governments and life sciences partners.
Valthos said its platform can help agencies respond faster to natural outbreaks, lab accidents, or engineered pathogens, which traditional defense measures often cannot address quickly enough.
The company highlighted the increasing speed at which synthetic biology can produce new organisms as a critical challenge for public health.
OpenAI’s chief strategy officer, Jason Kwon, said supporting startups like Valthos strengthens the U.S. industrial ecosystem and democratizes AI for resilience.
The company is actively hiring engineers and researchers to expand its platform for preemptive threat detection and adaptive medical responses.
The launch follows a RAND Corporation report warning that governments are unprepared for AI-driven crises. Researchers are increasingly exploring AI tools to predict diseases before symptoms appear, reflecting a shift from reactive to preventive approaches.
Valthos describes biotechnology as having “the highest upside and most catastrophic downside,” emphasizing the urgency of rapid, AI-based solutions in global biodefense.
