Recursion Pharmaceuticals vs Alan

By valuation, Alan is the larger company at $5.8B versus $1.8B — a 3.3x difference. Size can also be measured by team: Recursion Pharmaceuticals employs 800 people while Alan has 500-1000 employees.

Alan has raised $750M in disclosed funding across 1 known round. Recursion Pharmaceuticals's funding history is not publicly available.

Alan leads with an Awaira Score of 83/100, while Recursion Pharmaceuticals sits at 65/100. That 18-point gap reflects real differences in funding, scale, and traction — it's not a vanity metric.

Recursion Pharmaceuticals was founded by Chris Gibson in 2013. Alan was founded by Jean-Charles Samuelian in 2016. Visit each company's profile on Awaira for a full founder biography.

Recursion Pharmaceuticals: Recursion Pharmaceuticals is a computational biology company founded in 2013 that uses artificial intelligence and high-throughput screening to accelerate drug discovery and development. The company's platform combines automated microscopy, machine learning, and large-scale biological data analysis to identify novel drug candidates and therapeutic targets across multiple disease areas. Recursion operates a proprietary laboratory automation system capable of conducting millions of experiments to map cellular and molecular responses to chemical compounds. The company has developed computational models to predict drug efficacy and safety profiles before traditional clinical testing, significantly reducing development timelines and costs. As a publicly traded company with a $2.2 billion valuation, Recursion has built partnerships with major pharmaceutical firms including Bayer and Exscientia to validate its platform's effectiveness. The company's approach focuses on rare genetic diseases and oncology, using its ability to process vast biological datasets that would be impractical through conventional methods. Recursion's competitive advantage lies in its integration of wet laboratory automation with advanced machine learning analytics, enabling systematic drug discovery at scale. The company continues to expand its internal pipeline while licensing its technology to established pharma players, positioning itself as both a drug developer and a computational biology platform provider in the AI healthcare sector. Recursion combines automated laboratory systems with machine learning to systematize drug discovery at unprecedented scale and speed. Alan: Alan is an AI-powered health insurance platform that combines employer group health insurance products with a digital health companion application, using AI to personalise member health recommendations, streamline claims processing, and provide on-demand access to telehealth and mental health resources. The Paris company holds full insurance carrier status in France, Belgium, and Spain, operating as a licensed insurer rather than a distribution intermediary.\n\nThe company raised approximately $220 million including a Series D round from investors including Temasek, Coatue, and Index Ventures, reaching a valuation of approximately $1.4 billion. Alan reports over half a million members across its markets, covering employees at several thousand companies including Stripe, Spendesk, and Vinted, with strong growth in SME employer sales driven by its digital-first enrolment and claims experience. The Alan app provides members with health navigation, symptom checking, and AI-generated health content in addition to insurance card and claims management functionality.\n\nAlan competes in the European digital health insurance market against traditional mutuals including Malakoff Humanis and AG2R La Mondiale, as well as digital health insurers including Henner and Oscar Health in the US context. Its vertical integration as a licensed insurer combined with a technology platform differentiates it from insurtechs that distribute existing insurer products through digital channels, giving Alan full control over the member experience and claims economics. The company is considered one of the most significant French technology companies building in regulated financial services.

Recursion Pharmaceuticals got there first, launching in 2013 — that's 3 years of extra runway. Alan didn't arrive until 2016. In AI, that kind of head start means more training data, deeper customer relationships, and a bigger talent moat.

Recursion Pharmaceuticals has about 800 employees; Alan has about 500-1000. A bigger team usually means more revenue or heavier VC backing, but in AI, small teams can build at massive scale.

Yes — they're direct rivals. Both Recursion Pharmaceuticals and Alan compete in AI Healthcare, targeting many of the same buyers. If you're evaluating one, you should be looking at the other.