Shyamal Hitesh Anadkat, a former OpenAI researcher, is in talks to raise about $15 million for his new AI startup, Empirical Machines. Peak XV Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners are the prospective investors, according to a Moneycontrol report.

The round would value the company at around $80 million and would be its first institutional fundraise. The talks are still under negotiation, so the deal has not closed.

Who is behind it

Anadkat spent nearly four years in Applied AI at OpenAI and served as Head of Startup Solutions. His team reportedly includes people who have worked at Google DeepMind, OpenAI and Sarvam AI.

What it builds

Empirical Machines is building AI tools to speed up scientific discovery. Its models are meant to analyse complex chemical compounds and shorten experimental cycles. The focus is science, not consumer chatbots or content tools.

Why the investors fit

Both firms have been leaning into AI:

  • Bessemer: It raised $5.75 billion in new capital in September, with $1.75 billion for seed and early-stage companies and $4 billion for growth deals. The firm says AI is at the centre of its strategy. It has backed more than 260 AI-native companies since 2022, and it names healthcare and life sciences among its priority areas.

  • Peak XV: The firm, formerly Sequoia Capital India and Southeast Asia, manages over $10 billion. It recently raised the ceiling for its Surge seed programme from $3 million to $5 million per company. The latest cohort of 18 startups is the first to use the higher limit. Peak XV says its investing is shifting towards capital-intensive deeptech.

Risks to watch

Science-focused AI is costly to run. Compute and GPU bills are high, and it is hard to verify that AI-generated insights hold up in real laboratory work.

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