PhnyX Lab, a generative AI startup building workflow tools for life science companies, has secured $4 million in seed funding through a SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity). The round was led by SK Networks, with participation from several well-known angel investors.
Notably, investors include Aidan Gomez, co-founder and CEO of Cohere, and Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol. Both are co-authors of the seminal paper “Attention Is All You Need,” which underpins today’s transformer-based AI systems. Their investment follows extensive discussions with PhnyX Lab CEO Min-seok Bae and Sung-hwan Choi, Executive Advisor to the company and COO of SK Networks.
“This funding marks an important milestone that reflects PhnyX Lab's potential to fundamentally transform how life science companies work,” said Min-seok Bae, CEO of PhnyX Lab.
As drug development and regulatory demands become more complex, life science companies are increasingly turning to generative AI to streamline research, accelerate approvals, and manage documentation. PhnyX Lab is tapping into this trend by developing tools that replace time-consuming, fragmented processes with intelligent workflows tailored for the pharmaceutical industry.
PhnyX’s approach has already found early validation. Its core product, Cheiron, launched in December 2024, and is now being used by over 60 companies—including Korea’s 10 largest pharmaceutical firms by revenue—for clinical trial analysis and literature search.
The company plans to use the new funding to scale its team, expand its suite of products, and deepen research and development. A key part of this expansion is Cheiron Write, a new tool aimed at automating medical writing processes—one of the most labor-intensive parts of drug development.
In June, PhnyX Lab partnered with SK Biopharmaceuticals and Samil Pharmaceutical to pilot Cheiron Write. The goal: reduce workflows that typically take months to just weeks or even hours.
“"Our mission goes beyond improving efficiency—we're reimagining the way critical work gets done, helping organizations accelerate not only drug discovery but also approval and deliver,” added Bae.
Founded in 2024, PhnyX Lab was created to address the specific operational bottlenecks faced by life science companies. Its core product, Cheiron, has quickly evolved from a research-focused tool into a scalable platform powering multiple stages of the pharmaceutical development cycle.
Headquartered in Seoul, the company is led by CEO Min-seok Bae. The executive team includes advisors from both the pharmaceutical and AI sectors, enabling PhnyX Lab to straddle both domains effectively.
With the success of Cheiron and the introduction of Cheiron Write, PhnyX Lab is positioning itself not just as a toolmaker, but as an infrastructure layer for modern pharmaceutical operations.
This latest round brings in investors who are not only capital providers, but also AI pioneers. Gomez and Polosukhin’s involvement signals confidence from some of the original architects of modern generative AI. SK Networks, the lead investor, continues to deepen its AI and life sciences footprint through its partnership with PhnyX.
The startup’s previous funding efforts were bootstrapped or undisclosed, making this its first public capital raise—a significant step as the company looks to enter global markets and deepen its R&D.
