Toronto biotech Biossil has raised US$153 million (about C$216 million) at a US$1-billion valuation in a financing led by OpenAI, according to BetaKit, making it Canada’s newest unicorn, announced Sept. 28.
The all-equity round also included Founders Fund, Quiet Capital, Modern Capital, Golden Ventures and Panache Ventures, BetaKit reported. Duke University’s endowment fund and the Abu Dhabi Investment Council also took part. Outlets differ on whether the lead was OpenAI itself or its startup fund, so this report describes the round as OpenAI-led.
Biossil’s model is to buy or license drug candidates that failed in clinical trials, then use AI to work out whether they could succeed for a different disease or patient group. The Logic reported the company was founded in March 2023 by Anthony Mouchantaf, a former tech banker, and Dr. Alexander Mosa, a physician. BetaKit’s earlier coverage described Mouchantaf as a former director of venture capital at RBCx.
The company spent three years in stealth. It surfaced in April 2026 with US$70 million in equity funding, according to BetaKit, which reported roughly 30 employees at the time and active work in sickle cell disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, glioblastoma, breast cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. The Peak reported that Biossil has acquired or licensed 12 molecular candidates and has two drugs in advanced clinical development. It also reported a July purchase of an antibiotic asset for $500,000.
The new money will go toward clinical development capacity and additional drug candidates, according to BetaKit. “That requires dedicated infrastructure capable of integrating AI and medicine together from discovery through development and into the clinic,” Mouchantaf said, as quoted by BetaKit. “We’re building that infrastructure in the United States and Canada.”
The last sentence is the part Canadian readers should watch. Biossil’s cap table is heavily foreign: a U.S. AI lab, a U.S. venture firm and a Gulf sovereign investor sit alongside Toronto seed backers Golden Ventures and Panache Ventures. The company has said it is building in both countries, but the sources reviewed do not say how much of the new clinical capacity will be located in Canada, or how many jobs will be created here. Those figures would show whether a Canadian-founded unicorn translates into Canadian drug development or mainly into a Toronto head office.
The round also lands as a data point in the debate over Canada’s ability to scale AI companies at home. Ottawa announced on Sept. 25 that it is giving Mitacs $162 million for AI-focused internships, according to BetaKit, and Heidi Health said Sept. 22 it would invest nearly $26 million in a Toronto headquarters. The Logic has described Biossil as working further along the development pipeline than many AI drug-discovery firms, which is an expensive and slow part of the process.
There are also caveats. The valuation is set by private investors, and nothing in the sources reviewed shows that either advanced program has produced late-stage trial results. A US$1-billion price tag reflects investor expectations, not approved medicines. The company’s own filings were not reviewed for this report.
For Canadian founders and investors, the immediate takeaway is the scale of the cheque and who wrote it. For patients and policy-makers, the test is more concrete: whether the trials, the jobs and any resulting therapies end up anchored in Canada.
