WALTHAM, Mass. — Dash Bio, a Waltham-based company developing automated laboratory infrastructure for drug development, has been named to the AI Disruptors 60 Class of 2026, recognizing emerging artificial intelligence companies worldwide.
The annual list, curated by Greenfield Partners, highlights 60 AI startups developing technologies across industries. This year’s honorees were announced at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 in San Francisco and featured on the Nasdaq MarketSite tower in New York City’s Times Square.
Dash Bio is developing an automated platform designed to accelerate drug development by replacing traditional manual laboratory processes with robotics, software and standardized workflows.
The company operates a 24,000-square-foot Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) facility in Waltham that combines robotic systems with proprietary laboratory software to automate bioanalysis, a critical component of preclinical and clinical drug development.
Its laboratory supports testing methods including ELISA, qPCR, ddPCR and mass spectrometry, with the company reporting that preclinical results can be delivered in days rather than months.
“Drug development was never built as infrastructure. Today it is an outsourced services business, priced by the hour and run by hand, and that model is now the slowest part of the industry,” said Dave Johnson, co-founder and CEO of Dash Bio.
“AI can generate candidates faster than the system can test them. Someone has to build the other half: the physical infrastructure that turns a model’s prediction into a measured result, at the speed and predictability the rest of technology takes for granted,” Johnson added.
The company said its technology is designed to address a growing bottleneck in pharmaceutical development as AI tools accelerate drug discovery while laboratory testing and clinical research remain costly and time-consuming.
Founded in 2024 by Johnson, Ander Tallett and Ely Porter, Dash Bio began commercial operations in July 2025.
Johnson previously served as chief data and AI officer at Moderna.
Since its commercial launch, the company has signed more than 30 customers, including early-stage biotechnology companies and four of the world’s 15 largest pharmaceutical companies.
In August 2026, Dash Bio raised $30 million in Series A financing led by Oak HC/FT, with participation from Freestyle Capital and Swift Ventures.
The financing brought the company’s total funding to $47.5 million, supporting its efforts to expand automated laboratory services and accelerate drug development.
