# Merck Digital Sciences Studio

> Merck Digital Sciences Studio is a VC fund in Newark backing Health Care and Biotechnology. See 20 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Newark, United States
- Total investments: 20
- Last investment: Nov 2024
- Lead investor: 0%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- Website: https://www.mds.studio/

Merck Digital Sciences Studio is an accelerator program that invests in digital health and biotech startups.

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Health Care | 9 | 45% |
| Biotechnology | 8 | 40% |
| Pharmaceutical | 6 | 30% |
| Artificial Intelligence | 6 | 30% |
| Software | 4 | 20% |

29 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pre-Seed | 15 | 75% |
| Seed | 3 | 15% |
| Venture - Series Unknown | 2 | 10% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 16 | 80% |
| Canada | 1 | 5% |
| United Kingdom | 1 | 5% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Dannce.ai | Dannce.ai is creating digital movement assessments to accelerate neurological drug development and increase the accessibility of quality neurological diagnoses. DANNCE (3-Dimensional Aligned Neural Network for Computational Ethology) is a markerless motion capture approach that uses deep learning to quantify behavior and detect disease. DANNCE hastwo core innovations: the acquisition of fine 3-D patient movement without using markers, and the analysis of movement to create distinct behavioral fingerprints corresponding to disease states and drug effects. | $2.6M | Pre-Seed | Nov 21, 2024 |  |
| Nine Diagnostics | Functional Precision Medicine by Design. A faster path to the most effective treatment. |  | Pre-Seed | Oct 01, 2024 |  |
| Pepper Bio | Transomics drug discovery platform | $6.5M | Seed | Nov 30, 2023 |  |
| Serinus Biosciences | Serinus Biosciences develops technologies to understand how chemicals work inside malignant tumor cells. They are developing a new generation of AI for drug development by leveraging knowledge-primed models and cancer biology. Their technique makes it possible to create medicines that are effective for a variety of patient groups, bypass resistancemechanisms, and support combinations by design.Serinus Biosciences is headquartered in New York City, New York and was founded in 2022. | $150K | Venture - Series Unknown | Nov 16, 2023 |  |
| DeepSeq.AI | DeepSeq.AI was founded in 2019, with the overall mission of decoding the relationship between protein sequences and functions by combining wet-lab, software, and AI in a continuous development loop in order to design and screen novel protein drugs more efficiently. Up to date, DeepSeq.AI has developed a unique next-generation sequencing (NGS) basedAI platform to help pharma companies design novel protein drugs with high speed and accuracy.In 2021, DeepSeq.AI started to work with one of the top-10 global biopharma on feasibility studies to accelerate their drug discovery efforts. Those collaborations were successful, and we presented one of our successful projects at the Protein Engineering Summit Boston (PEGS) in May 2023, along with a number of other top biopharma and technology companies (e.g., Pfizer, Amgen, IBM). In Nov 2023, DeepSeq.AI was funded by UC Berkeley SkyDeck Fund and Merck Digital Sciences Studio (MDSS). | $150K | Pre-Seed | Nov 01, 2023 |  |
| Ascent Bio | Ascent Bio provides deep learning-based design and optimization of molecules. Ascent Bio is building a fast, AI-powered platform for multi-property molecule design, enabling scientists to rapidly discover and optimize novel molecules, saving time and resources while transforming drug discovery. | $150K | Pre-Seed | Oct 01, 2023 |  |
| Aperture bio | Aperture Bio provides a rapid, ultra-sensitive solution to quantify how, why and when drugs fail. | $150K | Pre-Seed | Oct 01, 2023 |  |
| E9 Genomics | E9 Genomics focuses on computational genomics within the biotechnology and data science sectors. The company provides technologies and infrastructure to support scientists and clinicians in their genomic research. E9 Genomics aims to accelerate therapeutic research and precision medicine by enabling efficient querying and analysis of large genomicdatasets. | $150K | Pre-Seed | Oct 01, 2023 |  |
| Vcreate | Vcreate is in the process of developing the next generation of T-cell immunotherapies. | $150K | Pre-Seed | Oct 01, 2023 |  |
| Brainify.AI | Brainify.AI is a brain data company building the foundation for precision medicine in brain disorders. We turn brain data into objective, deployable biomarkers that help biopharma and healthcare providers measure brain function, stratify patients, and personalize treatment decisions across psychiatry, neurology, and neurodegeneration.At the coreof our platform is the Brainify Datahub, the world’s largest EEG-linked multimodal brain dataset, integrating 2.7M patients, 430K EEGs (including repeat visits), and 90M clinical note Foundational Brain Model (first-of-its-kind)—pretrained on large, heterogeneous cohorts and then fine-tuned on partner data to generate trial-ready treatment-response scores, stability metrics, and SAP-ready biomarker packages. This enables sponsors to design smaller, more powered CNS studies, reduce placebo and heterogeneity noise, and “rescue” at-risk or previously failed assets through biomarker-guided enrichment.To capture data at scale and standardize measurement, we developed BREEG™, a portable medical-grade EEG system with guided workflows and instant AI-generated reports, suitable for clinic, home, and ICU use. Every test feeds back into our Datahub, strengthening the model and creating a self-reinforcing data network effect. Commercially, Brainify.AI operates three integrated product lines—EEG tests (BREEG + AI reports), Datahub access for pharma, and software applications for cohort building and evidence generation—and is already post-revenue with paying customers, LOIs, and pilots across pharma and provider systems, backed by strategic investors and a growing IP portfolio. | $150K | Pre-Seed | Oct 01, 2023 |  |

10 of 20 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Meridian Street Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/meridian-street-capital) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Berkeley SkyDeck Fund](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/berkeley-skydeck-fund) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [big_bets](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bigbets) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Boreal Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/boreal-ventures) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [BrightEdge Fund](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/brightedge-fund) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Center of Aging and Brain Health Innovation](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/center-of-aging-and-brain-health-innovation-cabhi) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## Similar investors

### Similar stage
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Right Side Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/right-side-capital-management) — VC Fund
- [Everywhere Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/everywhere-ventures) — VC Fund

## FAQ

### What does Merck Digital Sciences Studio invest in?

Merck Digital Sciences Studio invests primarily in Health Care, Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical startups, most often at Pre-Seed and Seed stage. Most of the 20 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### When did Merck Digital Sciences Studio last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Merck Digital Sciences Studio closed in Nov 2024. Shizune tracks 20 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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