Baidu Founder Robin Li's AI-Driven Biotech Firm BioMap Secures New Funding and Files for Hong Kong IPO Amid Tech Titans' Rush into Longevity Science

BioMap was founded in 2020 as a life science artificial intelligence large model company with disruptive technology. It was initiated by Robin Li, the founder of Baidu, who also serves as the chairman, while Liu Wei, the former CEO of BV Baidu Ventures, acts as a co-founder and serves as the CEO of BioMap. In July 2021, BioMap announced the completion of its Series A financing round worth hundreds of millions of US dollars, led by GGV Capital and Baidu, with founder Robin Li continuing to increase his investment.

In the AI pharmaceuticals track, BioMap, which was established relatively recently, has made rapid progress. In October 2023, BioMap announced a high-profile collaboration with pharmaceutical company Sanofi to jointly develop cutting-edge models for biologic drug discovery. In June this year, XtalPi (02228.HK), China's first AI pharmaceutical stock, was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, kicking off a capital feast in this field.

Besides Li Yanhong, many technology tycoons are actually very passionate about life sciences. Last year, Jensen Huang, the head of NVIDIA, expressed the view that "AI + pharmaceuticals" would become the next golden track. In terms of actual actions, NVIDIA invested in more than 10 AI pharmaceutical companies only in 2023.

Moreover, tech giants such as Huang Zheng, Zhang Yiming, and Wang Xiaochuan are all currently focusing on life sciences.

BioMap was founded in 2020, the peak year for AI drug discovery. In February of that year, Schrödinger went public on the US stock market, and its stock price continued to soar, setting off a wave of excitement in the secondary market. Subsequently, companies like Relay Therapeutics that went public also saw their stock prices rise continuously.

The AI pharmaceuticals boom has spread from the US stock market to the Chinese market, with a group of startups such as XtalPi and Insilico Medicine securing large financing rounds in the capital markets.

This year, 38 AI pharmaceutical companies were established in China, which has been dubbed the "First Year of AI Pharmaceuticals in China."

Before founding BioMap, Baidu Ventures, under the leadership of Liu Wei, had already made numerous strategic moves in the AI pharmaceutical field.

According to Baidu, Liu Wei has been focusing on biocomputing as the core layout direction of BV Baidu Ventures since he became the CEO of Baidu Ventures in 2017, and has made early investments in more than 40 biocomputing companies across China, the US, and Europe.

In terms of investment in China, after Insilico Medicine established its Hong Kong and Shanghai companies in 2019, Baidu Ventures participated in its Series B funding. In 2020, Baidu Ventures also led the angel round of financing for Deep Potential Technology, which was co-founded by E Wei-nan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with Zhang Linfeng and Sun Weijie.

In 2020, Robin Li and Wei Liu founded BioMap with personal funding, where Robin Li serves as the Chairman and Wei Liu as the CEO.

Li Yanhong once stated that biocomputing is a highly integrated discipline, and the integration of biology and computing will bring significant breakthroughs and advancements. Relying on biocomputing engines can effectively utilize vast amounts of biological data, transforming drug discovery from "finding a needle in a haystack" to "following a map to find the treasure," thereby benefiting human health. "We hope to use AI technology to shorten drug development time, reduce drug side effects, alleviate patients' heavy medical burdens, and strive for more possibilities for every life."

In previous contact between "Health News Consultation" and BioMap, the latter expressed unwillingness to be labeled as part of the "Baidu system," emphasizing its independent operation.

BioMap stands out as the only independent AI drug discovery entity among major Chinese tech companies, rather than operating as an internal project team like Baidu. Huawei's AI drug discovery team is led by Dr. Qiao Nan, Chief Medical Scientist of Huawei Cloud, while Tencent and Alibaba’s AI drug discovery initiatives are respectively driven by Tencent AI Lab and Alibaba Cloud.

Although independent of Baidu, BioMap maintains close business ties with it and has established a deep strategic partnership with Baidu's underlying deep learning algorithm platform, PaddlePaddle.

Since its inception, BioMap has actively expanded into external investments, participating in the investment of AbcamBio, SinoMab, and the new round of financing for DeepTech in 2021.

From 2020, the year BioMap was born, to 2024, when it reached a strategic cooperation with the Hong Kong Investment Company, the industry environment of AI pharmaceuticals has undergone tremendous changes both globally and in China.

The first batch of AI-designed drugs encountered a major setback after entering clinical trials, and so far, not a single drug has been successfully launched. The fall from grace of AI technology has caused its former supporters to gradually distance themselves. The stock prices of leading companies that have already gone public have plummeted, and as the chill spreads, the primary market has also rapidly contracted. Investors have become increasingly cautious, leaving AI pharmaceutical companies, deprived of financial support, on shaky ground.

According to incomplete statistics, among the 31 AI pharmaceutical companies in China that received financing in 2023, the vast majority were at the Angel to A+ round stage, with only one company securing B+ round funding and two companies obtaining C round financing. Among them, the highest financing amount for the year was BioMap's C round financing of 700 million RMB.

Insilico Medicine, the first company to head to Hong Kong's stock market, has resubmitted its prospectus after the initial filing expired; XtalPi has become the "first AI drug discovery stock," being the first to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. An investor pointed out, "Although XtalPi has successfully gone public, it will face significant pressure after the lock-up period ends."

Many investors who once paid close attention to the AI pharmaceuticals sector told "Health News Consultancy" that they haven't looked at this track for a long time and have turned to other fields to seek good targets.

In recent years, a large number of Internet tycoons have retired early, and their new moves point to the major track of life sciences, with Chen Tianqiao and Robin Li in the front, followed by Colin Huang, Zhang Yiming, and Wang Xiaochuan.

Tech giants abroad are also striving to keep up. Apart from Elon Musk's direct involvement, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife have even donated to the "Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences" fund, adding significant momentum to the field of life sciences. Jack Ma and his wife are also donors to this fund and have taken on roles as members of the foundation’s board. According to official data provided by Alibaba, the Ma couple will donate $3 million annually to the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences fund.

At the 2017 Health Conference, Ma Yun predicted that after the Internet, the greatest technological breakthrough in the future would be in the field of life sciences—a war against poverty, disease, and environmental governance for humanity.

Ma Yun stated that Alibaba's entry into the data field focuses on obtaining data on human behavior, understanding the origins of diseases through data, and identifying disease trends. "I believe that with the increase in computing speed and our understanding of human DNA and cells, there will be significant breakthroughs in life sciences in the future. In the next 30 to 50 years, cancer and AIDS will be conquered, and all human problems will be solved due to technology and data."

Chen Tianqiao, the founder of Shanda Network, became the youngest richest person in China at the age of 31. In the following years, he has been suffering from various illnesses. He first endured immense mental stress due to panic disorder and later underwent multiple surgeries after being diagnosed with cancer.

In November 2014, Chen Tianqiao sold all his shares in Shanda Games and officially stepped down as chairman, gradually fading out of the public eye.

Chen Tianqiao came under the public spotlight again in 2016 when he donated $115 million to the California Institute of Technology in the United States to establish a brain science research institute — the Chen Tianqiao and Luo Qianqian Institute (TCCI) — for fundamental biological research on the brain. By the end of 2017, Chen Tianqiao and his wife had also established a translational center for brain science research in Shanghai, in collaboration with Fudan University Affiliated Hospital and the Shanghai Mental Health Center. The first donation was 500 million yuan, with plans for a total investment of 7 billion yuan.

Chen Tianqiao once said, "Assuming I can really figure out the brain, I just need to store the brain in a place, and the possibility of immortality will completely exist."

In 2021, three Internet tycoons announced their resignation successively and will turn to life science research.

Huang Zheng Steps Down as Chairman of Pinduoduo, Turns to Research in Food Science and Life Sciences. In an internal letter, Huang Zheng mentioned that his choice to dedicate himself to scientific research aligns with his lifelong aspirations and interests, exploring industry development through cutting-edge fundamental science.

Before stepping down as chairman, in 2020, Huang Zheng, together with the founding team, donated 2.37% of Pinduoduo's shares to establish the "Starlight Charity Foundation." In the first phase, the foundation will donate $100 million to the Zhejiang University Education Foundation within 3-5 years, aiming to promote scientific research in biomedicine, agricultural food, and other fields.

Zhang Yiming Steps Down as CEO of ByteDance: In an Internal Letter to All Staff, He Stated that the Impact of Virtual Reality, Life Sciences, and Scientific Computing on Human Life is Already Showing the Dawn of Daybreak. To Seize This Opportunity, Innovators Need to Break Through the Inertia of Business to Explore. For This Reason, Zhang Yiming Decided to Step Down as CEO of ByteDance and Commit to Participating in This Wave of Technological Transformation for a Decade.

The internal letter also introduced the public welfare projects that ByteDance is currently exploring, focusing on areas such as educational charity, brain diseases, and digital collation of ancient books. Zhang Yiming stated, "I have personally invested some resources into these, and I have more ideas, hoping to participate more deeply."

Wang Xiaochuan Steps Down as CEO of Sogou, States in Internal Letter: "For the Next Twenty Years, I Hope to Contribute to the Development of Life Sciences and Medicine."

During his school years, Wang Xiaochuan studied bioinformatics. After leaving Sogou, Wang shifted his focus to the life sciences field, reading thousands of medical papers over several years.

After founding the artificial intelligence company BioMap in 2023, Wang Xiaochuan stated in an interview, "I have been thinking about transforming healthcare into a mathematical model. Therefore, in making choices, I also strive to make healthcare an essential component of the new company."

Among the foreign tech giants, as early as 2011, Russian tech entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov launched a research project called "Russia 2045," which aimed to store human personalities and memories in an artificial brain. If a human dies, a virtual human will replace them to continue existing, achieving "immortality" in another form.

Even more so, some individuals have taken practical steps. American billionaire Bryan Johnson personally experimented with blood transfusion therapy, extracting blood from his son's body and injecting substances derived from it into himself. After discovering that the blood transfusion therapy had no effect, Bryan Johnson turned to genetic surgery in an attempt to achieve longevity and immortality by editing his own DNA.

Whether it's Robin Li, Colin Huang, Zhang Yiming, Wang Xiaochuan, or others, these Internet giants, at the peak of their lives, have risen and fallen with the Internet wave during their entrepreneurial journeys. After achieving great success, life sciences have become their common choice for the second half of their careers.

Their deep interest in life sciences and long-term commitment also reflect the development potential and social value of the life sciences field. The participation of these industry leaders not only brings funding and support to the life sciences sector but also further drives technological innovation and industry growth, ushering life sciences into a "golden age."

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