gradCapital AI Co-Scientist: Market Research Leading to a Pass Recommendation
Ran independent market research on a nascent AI co-scientist platform, synthesizing complex technical signals into a clear investment recommendation.
Manasvi Yadav
Founders' Office Intern at gradCapital
From their time as
Founders' Office Intern
gradCapital • 2025
Overview
Manasvi volunteered to lead the market research for a potential investment in an AI co-scientist platform, a company building tools to enhance the research and academic side of science. The market was nascent and poorly mapped, which was part of why she put her hand up: it would require sustained, deep reading.
The Story
Manasvi volunteered to lead the market research for a potential investment in an AI co-scientist platform, a company building tools to enhance the research and academic side of science. The market was nascent and poorly mapped, which was part of why she put her hand up: it would require sustained, deep reading.
She anchored her research in the curious case of Google DeepMind. She spent days reading through the arc of AlphaFold, the pioneer in AI-assisted scientific research, and traced why DeepMind had moved away from the co-scientist model despite having built the category's most significant early product.
The signal she surfaced was structural: DeepMind had concluded that AI would reach the capacity to do science itself, making the co-scientist framing a transitional rather than durable category. That conclusion had direct implications for the investability of the company under review.
She delivered a pass recommendation on that basis. The fund passed on the idea. The founders were subsequently backed for a different idea they pivoted to, which Manasvi noted was a separate decision she was not part of.