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Fidji Simo Co-Founded AI Firm ChronicleBio in 2025

The company aims to map biological data to treatments for chronic conditions like POTS and ME/CFS.

Updated on Oct. 7, 2026 in Biotech

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ChronicleBio, an AI-focused firm co-founded by former Instacart CEO Fidji Simo, has raised over $20 million to research treatments for chronic conditions like POTS. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

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Former Instacart CEO Fidji Simo co-founded ChronicleBio in 2025 to research chronic illnesses. The AI firm, which raised over $20 million, focuses on conditions including Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS).

Why it matters

The firm aims to address a lack of biological data surrounding chronic conditions that cause symptoms like dizziness and fainting. By aggregating data on these illnesses, the company intends to identify specific drug candidates for patients.

ChronicleBio has secured over $20 million in funding to build a biological dataset. This repository is designed to help researchers map specific therapeutic interventions to patients with complex conditions like ME/CFS and long COVID.

The players

Fidji Simo

Co-founder of ChronicleBio who previously led Instacart as CEO and served in a role at OpenAI.

ChronicleBio

An AI research firm focused on gathering biological data to address chronic conditions including POTS and ME/CFS.

The details

ChronicleBio utilizes artificial intelligence to analyze biological data points from individuals suffering from chronic illnesses. By aggregating these metrics, the firm seeks to understand the underlying mechanisms of symptoms such as rapid heart rate and fainting. The research focuses on identifying connections between specific biomarkers and patient outcomes to improve drug targeting for complex, often poorly understood, syndromes.

Timeline

  1. 2019: Fidji Simo was diagnosed with POTS.

  2. 2025: Fidji Simo co-founded ChronicleBio and left Instacart.

  3. July 2026: Fidji Simo departed her full-time role at OpenAI.

  4. October 1, 2026: Simo posted about the company mission on X.

The Tech Race

ChronicleBio enters a landscape traditionally defined by large-scale, NIH-funded research initiatives like the ME/CFS Collaborative Research Centers. The firm is attempting to accelerate the identification of drug targets through private, AI-driven data aggregation.

The firm's work remains in the research stage, meaning no consumer products or clinical diagnostics are currently available to patients. Success for this project depends on the company building a large-scale, high-fidelity dataset of chronic illness markers.

The takeaway

This project underscores the growing effort to apply generative models to clinical conditions that have historically lacked consistent data. Readers should watch for future publications or patent filings from the firm that disclose specific biomarkers or drug candidates identified by their AI.

Further reading

For more on the intersection of artificial intelligence and medicine, explore our Biotech section.

Source note: This article includes information reported by Inc..

Live Poll

Do you believe AI research will lead to better treatments for chronic illnesses?