Nanome
Founded 2015 · 19 employees on LinkedIn · 4 known investors
Nanome provides a conversational, AI-assisted platform for exploring molecular structures across web and XR, letting researchers load, build, edit, and score structures using natural language and 300+ scientific tools. It is aimed at pharmaceutical and chemistry R&D teams working with 3D molecular data.
Also known as Nanome Inc.
Founders & leadership
Nanome was founded in 2015 by Steve McCloskey.
Investors · 4
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Nanome is a San Diego–based software company building a collaborative workspace for molecular visualization and drug discovery that runs in a desktop web browser and natively on XR headsets. Users load protein and small-molecule structures from public databases such as RCSB, PubChem and DrugBank or from local files, build and edit structures, set up 3D scenes, and review them together in real-time multiplayer sessions where a colleague in a headset and a colleague on the web can inspect the same molecule simultaneously.
The platform includes measurement, selection and builder tools, protein–ligand interaction analysis, docking pose review, molecular dynamics trajectory playback, structural alignment (RMSD), real-time atom scoring, rendering, and spatial recordings that capture a user's actions in VR for later interactive playback. An AI copilot called MARA provides conversational control and access to a stated 300+ scientific tool integrations, including Schrödinger LiveDesign, CDD Vault, OpenEye/Cadence, Discngine 3decision, KNIME Server, CCG MOE, Boltz, OpenFold, AutoDock Vina, DiffDock, ESMFold, and databases such as RCSB PDB, AlphaFold DB, ChEMBL, UniProt, UniChem and Materials Project. Supported modalities span small molecules, molecular glues, enzymes, antibodies and metal–organic frameworks, and specialized agents handle jobs such as docking, co-folding and antibody design.
Nanome positions itself as an alternative to script-driven desktop viewers such as PyMOL, opening the same PDB and SDF files while adding multiplayer sessions, native XR and AI-driven tool execution. Alongside industry use, the company sells an academic license for classrooms and academic labs, including an in-VR web browser for lesson materials, workspace saving and MDM support for managing headset fleets.
Founding story
The concept originated from founder and CEO Steve McCloskey's time in the nanoengineering program at UC San Diego, where he identified the difficulty of understanding three-dimensional molecular structures through 2D monitors, keyboard and mouse, a limitation he linked to high drug R&D costs.
Business model
B2B software sold to pharmaceutical, biotech, academic and industrial R&D organizations, with a free entry tier, downloadable applications and an academic/education license purchased separately; Caplight characterizes the customer profile as including subscription SaaS, usage-based SaaS, freemium, services and consulting, and government contracts, with on-premise deployment among its noted capabilities.
Paid licenses and subscriptions for the platform, including a separate academic license for educators, students and researchers, with a free tier used as an entry point.
Traction
The company reports more than 60 academic citations and lists R&D users including Genentech, Novartis, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Nimbus, Insilico Medicine, LifeArc, Iktos, Promega, Psilera, Sanavia and UC San Diego. Nanome was included in the Meta Quest Pro launch lineup in October 2022 and was mentioned by Mark Zuckerberg on Meta's Q4 2022 earnings call. Caplight reports an employee range of 19, growth from 33 to 38 employees quarter-over-quarter as of October 2024, and monthly website visitors of 15.1K in November 2024.
Latest developments
Recent releases include Nanome v2.4.0 with an early access release, MARA voice commands, minimization and chemical interactions; a LiveDesign plugin for loading molecular data from Schrödinger LiveDesign and returning ligand poses to LiveReports; and documentation for Boltz-2 configuration and analysis. In December 2025, Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun reported that Resonac Holdings shortened cosmetic additive development time using VR with Nanome, and in July 2025 ITIF covered AR/VR's potential in health care featuring the company.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
Positioned as an XR- and AI-native alternative to conventional 2D desktop molecular viewers, with named users including Genentech, Novartis, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Nimbus, Sanavia, Promega, UC San Diego, Insilico Medicine, LifeArc, Iktos and Psilera; Caplight lists Chemical Computing Group, Cadence Design Systems and Dassault Systèmes among comparable companies.
Combines real-time cross-device collaboration (web plus multiple XR headsets), conversational AI control of scientific tooling, and interoperability with existing computational chemistry software and public structure databases, contrasted on the company's site with single-user, script-driven desktop viewers.
Technology
A multi-user spatial computing and web platform for 3D molecular structures supporting Meta Quest, HTC Vive Focus 3, Pico Neo and Apple Vision Pro headsets as well as a browser app requiring no headset. It includes a plugin architecture (for example an AutoDock Smina docking plugin, a DSX-based real-time atom scoring plugin, and a Schrödinger LiveDesign plugin for loading data and returning ligand poses to LiveReports) and MARA, an AI copilot with voice commands that reaches 300+ scientific tools and integrations, including co-folding and structure-prediction models such as Boltz-2, OpenFold and ESMFold.
Go-to-market
Free downloadable product and web app as the entry point, direct sales and demo scheduling for enterprise buyers, an academic purchase path for classrooms and labs, plus visibility through press coverage, conference demonstrations, published citations, a YouTube channel of scientific use cases, and partnerships with headset and software ecosystem vendors.
Pharmaceutical and biotech R&D teams, computational and medicinal chemists, structural biologists, materials and consumer-products researchers, and academic educators, students and labs.
Geography
Headquartered in San Diego, California, with users in Japan, Europe and across the Americas; documented academic and industrial deployments include the University of Sydney, University of Freiburg and Japanese customer Resonac Holdings.
History
Caplight lists a 2015 founding year and early financing activity including a June 2016 accelerator and pre-seed involvement, a July 2016 grant, and a seed round dated February 9, 2021. Early commercial work focused on food and beverage projects and sustainable battery development before expansion into pharmaceutical chemistry, synthetic biology and education. The product line grew from VR molecular visualization to spatial recordings (2021), cryo-EM support (2023), the MARA AI copilot (2023) and a v2.4.0 release adding early access features, MARA voice commands, energy minimization and chemical interactions.
Compiled by commissioned research from 7 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 8
launches, deals, and filingsNikkan Kogyo Shimbun reported that Resonac Holdings reduced cosmetic additive development time using VR.
Release adding an early access program, MARA voice commands, energy minimization and chemical interaction analysis; the company also published a LiveDesign plugin and Boltz-2 configuration documentation.
Nanome launched MARA, an AI copilot for molecular analysis and reasoning that provides conversational access to scientific tools.
Coverage reported that the Nanome VR application added cryo-EM capability.
Mark Zuckerberg referenced Nanome during Meta's Q4 2022 earnings call.
Nanome was included in the Meta Quest Pro launch lineup and covered in reviews of the device.
Nanome closed a $3 million round led by Bullpen Capital, with participation from Formic Ventures (led by Oculus co-founder Michael Antonov), to establish new business partnerships, build the brand and expand its science and engineering team.
$3M source ↗
Nanome said its next product update would add Spatial Recording, allowing users to record VR work sessions for asynchronous review and for producing lectures and lessons.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
▸Research sources · 7
primary sources listed
- Nanomenanome.ai · web
7 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Nanome do?
- Nanome is a collaborative molecular visualization and drug discovery platform spanning web, XR headsets and an AI copilot.
- Who founded Nanome?
- Nanome was founded by Steve McCloskey in 2015.
- Who are Nanome's investors?
- Nanome's investors include Bullpen Capital, Colopl Next, Keshif Ventures, Sparkland Capital.