Funding profile · AI drug discovery

PostEra

One Form D in seven years, and a business funded mainly by pharma partners rather than investors. Here is what the filing shows, and where it differs from the announcement it accompanied.

$26.05MSold on the only Form D on record, filed Jan 2022
21Investors on that filing, about $1.24M each
$610MAnnounced ceiling of the Pfizer collaboration, company-stated
$68MInitial NIH award to the ASAP center, shared across eight institutions

Data as of September 22, 2026. Company-reported figures are labeled.

Rounds at a glance

When Round Amount Investors Source
2019 to 2020 Seed, around YC Winter 2020 $2.5M reported YC, venture funds and angels, not named Chemistry World
Dec 31, 2021 first sale Series A, as filed $27,530,000 offered; $26,054,972 sold 21 investors Form D
Jan 11, 2022 Series A, as announced $24M Clermont Group (lead), Breyer Capital, Lifeforce Capital, I2BF Global Ventures; existing holders including Metaplanet, HOF Capital, Pioneer Fund Company release
Dec 2020, Jan 2022, Jan 2025 Pfizer collaborations $13M and $12M upfront; $610M headline Pfizer Company and partner
Nov 16, 2023 Amgen collaboration Undisclosed Amgen Company-stated
2022 to 2025 NIH AViDD center (ASAP) $68M initial, consortium-wide NIAID Public record
Sep 9, 2026 Fertility programs sold Undisclosed; CEO says “mid-double-digit millions” EMD Serono, part of Merck KGaA Company and press

What the filings show

PostEra Inc. · Form D · filed Jan 14, 2022

First sale
Dec 31, 2021
Offered
$27,530,000 equity
Sold
$26,054,972 · $1,475,028 remaining
Investors
21 · average about $1,240,700
Exemption
Rule 506(b)
Issuer
Delaware corporation, incorporated 2019, San Francisco address, industry Biotechnology
Related persons
Aaron Morris, Alpha Lee and Matthew Robinson, each listed as executive officer and director
Filing
SEC EDGAR, CIK 0001904407

Reading the filings

  1. The filing is $2.05M larger than the announcement.The release says $24 million; the Form D filed three days later reports $26,054,972 sold. The $2,054,972 difference is close to the roughly $2.5 million Chemistry World reported PostEra had raised by April 2020. A seed converting into a priced round produces that pattern, but no earlier Form D exists to confirm it.
  2. These are fund-sized checks.$26,054,972 across 21 investors averages about $1,240,700 each: named institutions plus a short tail of individuals, not a syndicate of small angels. No special purpose vehicle appears in EDGAR under the company name.
  3. Money closed before the news.First sale December 31, 2021; press release January 11, 2022; Form D January 14, 2022, inside the 15 day deadline. The cash was in before the round and the $260 million Pfizer AI Lab were announced together.
  4. The board on the filing is three founders.Morris, Lee and Robinson are each executive officer and director. No investor director is named, though the release names a lead. Whether one joined later is not visible, because nothing has been filed since.
  5. Nothing has been filed for almost five years.The 2022 offering still shows $1,475,028 unsold and has never been amended. C&EN reported in November 2025 that PostEra was raising a Series B. As of September 22, 2026 no Form D for it has appeared.
  6. Customers have supplied more cash than investors.Disclosed Pfizer upfronts total $25 million, about the size of the whole equity raise, before the undisclosed Amgen terms, the ASAP grant work and the 2026 asset sale.

Commercial signals

Signal Detail Source type
Partner cash $13M upfront in Jan 2022 and $12M in Jan 2025 from Pfizer, plus undisclosed 2020 and Amgen upfronts. Company and partner
Deal ceiling $610M headline across three Pfizer agreements; $248M of the 2022 tranche was milestone-contingent. No milestone payment disclosed. Company and partner
Grant work ASAP AViDD center, $68M initial for three years across eight institutions, 2022 to 2025. PostEra co-leads; the award is not paid to PostEra alone. Public record
Asset sale FSHR and LHCGR agonist programs sold to EMD Serono, Sep 9, 2026. Both preclinical; safety and efficacy in humans not established. Company-stated
Clinical and regulatory No registered trial and no FDA record found under PostEra as of Sep 22, 2026. Not found
The $1Bn partnerships line Used in company boilerplate since November 2023. Disclosed terms reach $610M with Pfizer; Amgen was never disclosed. The figure cannot be rebuilt from published deal values. Differs from disclosures

What to watch

  • A Form D for the Series B, due within 15 days of the first sale.
  • An amendment to the 2022 filing, still showing $1,475,028 unsold.
  • Whether the EMD Serono proceeds stand in for a priced round.
  • Any disclosed milestone payment from Pfizer or Amgen, the first sign the headline numbers are being earned.
  • A trial registration for the PMOS program, guided to early 2027.

The PostEra story on Healthcare DiscoveryHealthcare Discovery

Related companies

  • Verge Genomics: Shared investor: Lifeforce Capital. The first company to carry a drug from an AI platform into ALS patients
  • Reverie Labs: Shared investor: Lifeforce Capital. A Cambridge company that used machine learning to design brain penetrant kinase inhibitors for cancer
  • XGenomes: Shared investor: Hof Capital. A Cambridge, Massachusetts company reading DNA in five letter words instead of one base at a time
  • 64x Bio: Shared investor: Lifeforce Capital. A Harvard spinout that engineers the cells which manufacture viral vectors, rather than the therapies those vectors carry

Sources

  1. Public recordForm D, PostEra Inc., CIK 0001904407SEC · Jan 14, 2022
  2. Public recordNIAID Announces Antiviral Drug Development AwardsNIAID · May 18, 2022
  3. IndependentHow PostEra designs drugs from codeC&EN, Rowan Walrath · Nov 2025
  4. IndependentMerck KGaA buys PostEra’s oral fertility moleculesC&EN, Rowan Walrath · Sep 9, 2026
  5. IndependentPostEra points its synthesis algorithm at coronavirusChemistry World, Nicola Jones · Apr 17, 2020
  6. CompanyPostEra Closes $24M in New Financing to Advance Drug DiscoveryPR Newswire · Jan 11, 2022
  7. CompanyPostEra announces $260M AI Lab collaboration with PfizerPR Newswire · Jan 11, 2022
  8. CompanyPostEra announces expansion to $610M with PfizerPR Newswire · Jan 7, 2025
  9. CompanyPostEra Announces a Research Collaboration with AmgenPR Newswire · Nov 16, 2023
  10. CompanyPostEra’s Fertility programs acquired by EMD Serono, Inc.PR Newswire · Sep 9, 2026
  11. CompanyPostEra company profile and boilerplateY Combinator and postera.ai · accessed Sep 22, 2026

Compiled from SEC, NIH and other public records and published reports as of September 22, 2026. Form D notices report offerings under Regulation D; amounts reflect the filing date and may not capture later sales. Healthcare Venture Capital Fund holds no position in PostEra. This page is not an offer to sell or a recommendation to buy any security.