Outpost Bio raises $3.5 million pre-seed to build frontier models for human microbiology
Outpost Bio, a company decoding the hidden interactions that drive human biology, today announced a $3.5 million pre-seed funding round co-led by Merantix Capital and Seedcamp, with participation from OpenSeed VC, Defined and strategic family offices and angel investors.
Human microbiology is the study of how microbial communities living in and on our bodies metabolize drugs, transform nutrients, and shape health outcomes. It is one of the most complex and data-rich fields in biology, and R&D teams struggle to translate this complexity into actionable insights.
While most biological frontier models are built around parts encoded in human DNA, real biology emerges from interactions across multiple systems. Outpost Bio’s platform addresses this gap: building frontier models at the interaction layer that focus on human microbiology.
Lab-in-the-Loop: From data to discovery
Outpost Bio's Lab-in-the-Loop platform integrates automated experimentation with machine learning, creating a closed feedback loop in which models learn from experiments and guide what is tested next. This approach generates proprietary, human-derived functional data at scale, helping pharma partners de-risk clinical development, design safer formulations, and build regulatory evidence. Beyond pharma, food and consumer companies can test how prebiotics, botanicals, and other ingredients reshape microbial communities.
"We're building the most comprehensive dataset in human microbiology," said Dr. Jenny Yang, Co-Founder and CEO of Outpost Bio. "Microbial communities can dramatically alter drugs and other interventions, yet this layer has been largely ignored because the data hasn't existed at scale. For the first time, we can move beyond correlations to reveal causal pathways."
A world-class founding team
Outpost Bio is led by Dr. Jenny Yang, an Oxford PhD and former Marie Curie Fellow with a background in clinical machine learning, and Alex Merwin, Co-Founder and COO, former Head of Growth for Health & Bio Startups at AWS. The founding team includes Dr. Heidi Arjes (VP of R&D, 20 years in microbiology across academia/industry), Dr. Saif Ur-Rehman (Director of Data Engineering, first engineering hire at Basecamp Research), and Dr. Neythen Treloar (Principal ML Scientist, expertise in microbial foundation models). Advisors include Anna Marie Wagner (former Head of AI, Ginkgo Bioworks), Dr. Steven Jones (Scientific Director, Genome Sciences Centre), and Dr. Brad Ringeisen (former Director, DARPA Biological Technologies Office).
Tom Wilson, Partner at Seedcamp, said:
This is a rare team that combines deep microbiology, machine learning, and company-building experience. Jenny, Alex, and the founding team have both the scientific rigor and operational insight required to build a new layer of biological infrastructure.
Adrian Locher, Co-Founder and General Partner at Merantix Capital, said:
What took decades to build for earlier biological models can now be achieved in years. Faster wet-lab data generation, lower sequencing costs, and more powerful machine learning make this the right moment to build predictive models of the microbes that live within and on us.
The funding will accelerate Outpost Bio’s experimental and modeling platforms, unlocking new ways to design drugs, ingredients, and consumer health products.
