Our mission is to decode biology to radically improve lives.
In traditional drug discovery, 90% of drugs fail in clinical trials, after more than a decade in development and ~$2 billion in costs.
We’re changing the paradigm – leading with data, AI, and an industrialized approach to dramatically improve the cost, timeline, and probability of success of developing new medicines — because patients are waiting.
Recursion Decoded tells the story of a new kind of pharma company. One that values big swings over cautious steps. One where the “Bilingual” workforce of “Recursionauts” is made up of a nearly equal balance of technologists and life scientists. And one where we won’t be satisfied with incremental improvements to the status quo. Read about how we are building the biopharma company of the future.
We act boldly with integrity
We are unconstrained in our thinking, take calculated risks, and push boundaries, but never at the expense of ethics, science, or trust.
We move with urgency
because patients are waiting.
Speed isn’t about rushing but about moving the needle every day.
We care deeply and engage directly.
Caring means holding a deep sense of responsibility and respect - showing up, speaking honestly, and taking action.
We take ownership
and accountability.
Through ownership and
accountability, we enable trust and autonomy—leaders take
accountability for decisive action, and teams own outcomes together.
We learn actively
and adapt rapidly.
Progress comes from doing. We
experiment, test, and refine,
embracing iteration over perfection.
We are One Recursion
True cross-functional collaboration is about trust, clarity, humility, and impact. Through sharing we can be greater than the sum of our individual capabilities.
November 5, 2013
Recursion is founded
October 5, 2015
Lead clinical program REC-994 receives FDA Orphan Drug designation
September 2, 2016
Close Series A financing with lead investor Lux Capital
September 25, 2017
Close Series B financing with lead investor DCVC
January 4, 2019
Identify and in-license second clinical-stage asset, REC-2282, for neurofibromatosis type 2
February 12, 2019
Close the Series C financing with new, lead investor Baillie Gifford
May 6, 2019
Release first open-source data; launch RxRX1 machine learning competition on Kaggle
April 24, 2020
Release second open-source data; launch RxRX19 & RxRx2 on SARS-CoV-2 virus
March 11, 2024
June 26, 2024