Scala Biodesign Raises $16M Series A Financing to Accelerate Development of Protein-Based Products with ScalaOS

TEL AVIV, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 31, 2026--

Scala Biodesign, a biotech company transforming protein development through its powerful computational design technology for therapeutic and industrial applications, today announced the close of a $16M Series A financing led by Grove Ventures, with participation from TLV Partners, Deep Insight, the Israel Innovation Authority, and other investors. This round brings the company’s total funding to $21.5M since its inception in 2022.

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The funding will support global expansion of ScalaOS, the company’s production-grade protein design platform, and further development of its integrated computational architecture for optimizing proteins used in medicines, vaccines, and industrial applications. Proceeds will also support broader commercial adoption, expansion of the company’s engineering and scientific teams, and continued advancement of Scala’s technology.

Protein engineering remains a major bottleneck in therapeutics and industrial biotechnology. Natural proteins are rarely optimized for performance, stability, or manufacturability, and conventional approaches rely on iterative, trial-and-error lab cycles that can take years and cost millions. ScalaOS addresses this constraint by embedding computational protein design directly into R&D workflows.

Over the past eight months, ScalaOS has onboarded nine of the world’s top 20 pharmaceutical companies, in addition to leading chemical corporations. The platform supports applications across antibodies, enzymes, vaccines, diagnostics, and industrial biotech. By integrating physics-based modeling, evolutionary data, and best-in-class LLM-based AI models, ScalaOS optimizes protein performance, often in a single design cycle, reducing experimental iterations and accelerating development timelines.

“Having worked closely with the industry’s most advanced R&D teams, even the most sophisticated organizations are held back by the complexity of protein engineering,” said Dr. Ravit Netzer, Co-Founder and CEO, Scala Biodesign. “Today’s researchers are often forced into years of iterative, high-failure lab experiments simply because they lack the computational bandwidth to fully predict a candidate’s potential. At Scala, we are eliminating this bottleneck. By replacing traditional trial-and-error with a scalable, AI-driven platform, we empower scientists to turn complex engineering into a predictable, high-success engine, bringing life-saving medicines to market faster than ever imagined.”

One example of Scala Biodesign’s impact comes from its collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim, where Scala’s platform helped stabilize multiple highly challenging drug targets in their development pipeline. Using Scala’s technology, BI obtained drug targets that expressed at much higher levels, remained active, and enabled more effective drug discovery, allowing BI to move the programs forward. This illustrates how ScalaOS can remove key bottlenecks in drug discovery and help accelerate development timelines.

“Scala Biodesign has been a trusted partner for us across multiple targets for more than two years,” said Dr. Dirk Kessler, Global Head Structural Research, Boehringer Ingelheim. “ScalaOS helps remove a critical barrier in protein work that can otherwise hold programs back, allowing teams to advance more quickly from target to downstream discovery and toward new medicines.”

“Improving the speed and reliability of protein design remains one of the most impactful opportunities in biotechnology,” said Ms. Renana Ashkenazi, Managing Partner at Grove Ventures. “Scala’s computational platform allows research teams to tackle protein engineering challenges earlier and more systematically within their own workflows. We believe this capability can materially accelerate development timelines across therapeutic and industrial programs.”

Founded in 2022 by Dr. Ravit Netzer and Dr. Adi Goldenzweig, together with Chief Scientist Prof. Sarel Fleishman of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Scala Biodesign builds on more than a decade of validated protein design research spanning 80+ laboratories worldwide and over 150 scientific publications, now translated into an enterprise-ready software platform for industry R&D. Combining elite engineering talent with world-leading protein designers, Scala’s team leverages decades of domain expertise to deliver best-in-class software that empowers R&D organizations worldwide.

Through ScalaOS, the company supports programs ranging from optimizing therapeutic enzymes, antibodies, and gene therapy components to stabilizing vaccine antigens, addressing challenging drug targets, and enabling efficient microbial production of human proteins, demonstrating its versatility across biotherapeutics and biomanufacturing.

About Scala Biodesign

Scala Biodesign develops advanced computational protein design technologies that accelerate the development of protein-based medicines and biological products across industries. Its integrated platform combines deep scientific validation with scalable computational architecture to enable faster, more reliable protein optimization directly within industry R&D environments. ScalaOS, the company’s protein design platform, empowers partners to overcome critical development bottlenecks, compress timelines, and advance applications spanning biologics, vaccines, industrial biotechnology, and sustainable chemistry. For more information, visit www.scala-bio.com.

From left to right: Prof. Sarel Fleishman, Chief scientist, Dr. Ravit Netzer, Co-founder & CEO and Dr. Adi Goldenzweig Co-founder & CTO, Scala Biodesign. Photo credit: Scala Biodesign.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. gas prices jumped past an average of $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022 on Tuesday as the Iran war pushed fuel prices to soar worldwide.

According to motor club AAA, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is now $4.02 — over a dollar more than before the war began. The last time U.S. drivers were collectively paying this much at the pump was nearly four years ago, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The price is a national average, meaning drivers in some states have been paying well over $4 a gallon for a while now. Prices vary from state to state due to factors ranging from nearby supply to differing tax rates.

Since the U.S. and Israel launched a joint war against Iran on Feb. 28, the cost of crude oil — the main ingredient in gasoline — has spiked and swung rapidly. That’s because the conflict has caused deep supply chain disruptions and cuts from major oil producers across the Middle East.

Motorists around the world are also coping with higher gas prices due to the war. In Paris, for example, gas is at 2.34 euros per liter ($2.68), which is about $10.27 a gallon.

Higher gas prices are impacting consumers and businesses as many households continue to face wider cost of living strains. And as drivers pay more to cover necessities like gas, many may be forced to cut their budgets in other places.

More expensive fuel can also push up other spending, from utility bills to the price of many goods consumers buy each day.

Consumer prices and the cost of living already have become flashpoints in this midterm election year, with Democrats especially hammering Trump and Republicans as the GOP tries to hold majorities on Capitol Hill. A recent AP-NORC poll found that 45% of U.S. adults are "extremely” or “very” concerned about being able to afford gas in the next few months, up from 30% shortly after Trump won the 2024 presidential election with promises to lower costs.

In the immediate future, analysts point to groceries, which have to be restocked frequently and could also see price hikes as businesses’ transportation costs pile up.

But hauling other cargo and packages has also been impacted. The United Postal Service, for example, is seeking a temporary 8% added charge on some of its popular products including Priority Mail.

U.S. diesel prices — the fuel used for many freight and delivery trucks — is now going for an average of $5.45 a gallon, up from about $3.76 a gallon before the war began, per AAA.

If the war drags on, it’s possible that those prices could tick up even higher. Most tanker movement in the key Strait of Hormuz, where roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil typically sails through, remains at a halt. That’s led to cuts from major producers in the region who have no way of getting their crude to market. Meanwhile, Iran, Israel and the U.S. have all struck oil and gas facilities, worsening supply concerns.

In a search for some relief, the International Energy Agency pledged to release 400 million barrels of oil from emergency stockpiles of member nations. That includes the U.S., despite Trump initially downplaying the need for reserve oil.

The Trump administration has also eased sanctions to free up some oil from Venezuela, and temporarily Russia. The White House also says it’s waiving maritime shipping requirements under a more than century-old law, known as the Jones Act, for 60 days.

It's not yet clear if those efforts will bring relief for consumers. A lot of factors contribute to gas prices.

Refineries buy crude oil in advance, meaning some could be work with more expensive oil for a while, and it will take time for any new supply to trickle down to consumers.

And while steep crude prices are a leading driver behind today’s surge, U.S. gas prices typically tick up a bit at this time of year. More drivers are hitting the road and trying to fuel up while they can, so there’s higher demand. Warming weather also brings a shift to summer blend fuel, which is more expensive to produce than winter blend.

The U.S., which is a net oil exporter, hasn't seen as stark a shock as other parts of the world that rely more heavily on fuel imports from the Middle East, notably Asia. But that doesn’t mean America is immune to price spikes.

Oil is a globally-traded commodity. And most of what the U.S. produces is light, sweet crude — but refineries on the East and West coasts are primarily designed to process heavier, sour product. As a result, the country also needs imports.

Escalating geopolitical conflicts have disrupted oil flows and contributed to a surge in gas prices in the past. The U.S. average for regular gasoline climbed to its highest level of more than $5 a gallon in June 2022, nearly four months after the Ukraine war began and world leaders imposed sanctions against Russia, a leading oil producer.

Prices at the pump later fell from that record. Before Tuesday, per AAA data, the national average had stayed below the $4 mark since mid-August of 2022.

Associated Press journalists Angela Charlton in Paris and Bill Barrow in Washington contributed to this report.

A woman fills her vehicle with fuel at a gas station, Monday, March 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

A vehicle passes a gasoline price board at a filling station in Philadelphia, Friday, March 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)