Analysis
Proximal Ventures, a new venture firm founded by former SignalFire principal Sahir Raoof, has raised a $27.5 million debut fund to back startups applying AI to drug development, TechCrunch reported on November 10, 2026.
It is Raoof's first solo fund. The firm writes pre-seed and seed checks of $500,000 to $1.5 million and has backed seven startups so far, including ChronicleBio, co-founded by former OpenAI executive Fidji Simo, which uses AI to analyze biological and medical data to study chronic diseases and identify potential treatments.
The thesis: sell services, not software
Raoof's argument is that pharma has historically been a poor buyer of software but a strong buyer of outsourced services. AI, in his view, can automate much of that outsourced work at lower cost and higher speed, so startups can sell the outcome of a service rather than a tool. In his words, "for a long time, the assumption was that pharma is not a great buyer of software, but a really good buyer of services."
“Our own coverage of Series A funding shows the same pattern.”
Who is behind it
Limited partners include SignalFire, Kleiner Perkins and Bertelsmann Healthcare Investments, plus angels including Dimension Capital co-founders Nan Li and Zavain Dar and Amy Abernethy, co-founder of Highlander Health and a former FDA principal deputy commissioner. Raoof previously led business development at Iterative Health, spent two years at SignalFire, and oversaw partnerships at Flatiron Health, which Roche acquired for $1.9 billion in 2018.
How to read the numbers
Three figures frame the bet:
- Fund size — $27.5 million is a micro-fund by venture standards, so a handful of outcomes will determine returns; the $500,000 to $1.5 million check range implies concentrated ownership in early rounds (TechCrunch).
- Portfolio count — seven companies already backed means the firm is deploying quickly, so follow-on reserves and the pace of the next eight to ten checks matter as much as the thesis (TechCrunch).
- Exit reference point — Flatiron Health's $1.9 billion sale to Roche in 2018, which Raoof helped oversee on the partnerships side, shows healthcare data and services can reach large outcomes, but it took years and a strategic buyer (TechCrunch).
What to watch next
For founders, the signal is that a specialist investor now exists for AI-native drug-development services at the pre-seed stage. For other funds, the question is whether SignalFire, Kleiner Perkins and Bertelsmann Healthcare Investments, which backed this vehicle as limited partners, lead the follow-on rounds for its portfolio companies. Investors tracking the broader picture can compare this with AI valuations and the Tech IPO tracker to see how late-stage AI pricing differs from the small checks Proximal is writing.
Context for early-stage allocators
Small specialist funds are filling the earliest slot while larger firms concentrate capital in later rounds. Crunchbase News reports in its Series A analysis that capital is flowing faster even as fewer startups make the cut, which raises the value of a sector-specific pre-seed investor who can get companies to that bar. Our own coverage of Series A funding shows the same pattern.
At $27.5 million, the fund can support roughly 20 to 30 initial checks at the stated $500,000 to $1.5 million size before reserves. The main risk is the one Raoof is betting against: pharma procurement cycles are slow, and a services-style AI company still has to win its first enterprise contract before the next round.