AMSTERDAM and ZURICH, Dec. 16, 2025 — Cradle, an enterprise-grade AI software platform for protein engineering, today announced a series of milestones marking a new phase of company growth. In 2025, Cradle experienced rapid adoption across the pharmaceutical industry and is now supporting more than 50 active projects while powering drug discovery programs for six of the world’s top 25 pharmaceutical companies, including Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie, and Novo Nordisk.
To support increasing global demand and continued product expansion, Cradle doubled its headcount across all departments during the year and expanded its operations in the United States. The company is building dedicated U.S.-based teams to support customers, scale platform deployment, and deepen partnerships across the North American biotech ecosystem.
Cradle’s platform provides AI-driven protein design tools trained on proprietary customer data and tailored to each organization’s specific research needs. This approach enables in-house scientific teams at large pharmaceutical companies to conduct advanced drug discovery independently, without the operational complexity or intellectual property constraints associated with traditional partnership models. Over the past year, Cradle expanded its scientist-first platform with new features, updates, and support for additional protein classes. Customers are using the platform to accelerate early-stage research and development by up to twelve times while reducing costs by as much as ninety percent.
During 2025, Cradle successfully scaled multiple proof-of-concept projects into long-term, multi-year engagements. Existing customers also expanded both the number and scope of projects across their protein development pipelines. These programs span a wide range of applications, including personalized medicine and treatments for diseases previously considered undruggable. As part of this momentum, Cradle partnered with Novo Nordisk to accelerate the development of therapeutic candidates that could represent the next generation of GLP-1 treatments.
“2025 was an exceptional year for Cradle,” said Stef van Grieken, co-founder and chief executive officer of Cradle. “We made AI a practical, everyday tool for scientists building the next generation of biologics. By strengthening our platform, growing our team, and expanding our footprint across Europe and the United States, we are laying the foundation to deliver AI-designed therapeutics, enzymes, and materials at unprecedented speed and cost efficiency. We look forward to building on this momentum in 2026.”
Cradle’s mission is to make engineering biology easier, faster, and more cost-effective. Its enterprise AI platform is currently used across more than 50 research and development programs and serves six of the top 25 global pharmaceutical companies. Cradle enables scientists to design better proteins more efficiently, accelerating the development of therapeutics and bio-based products, including antibodies, enzymes, and advanced biomaterials. The company operates from Amsterdam, Zurich, and the United States, with a team of machine learning and biotechnology specialists whose experience spans leading technology and life sciences organizations. Cradle is backed by IVP, Index Ventures, and Kindred Capital.
Source: https://www.cradle.bio/
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