META Pharmaceuticals Secures Nearly RMB 100 Million in Seed and Pre-A Funding to Advance Three Small-Molecule Targeted Therapies into Clinical Development

Today, Shenzhen META Pharmaceuticals Inc., China's first small molecule innovative drug research and development company based on immunometabolic targets, announced the completion of seed and Pre-A rounds of financing totaling over 100 million yuan. The leading investors include Forcefield Ventures, XtalPi, IMO Ventures, and Tiantu Capital, with additional participation from Round Capital, Dexion Investment, Yali Capital, New Industry Venture Capital, and Propower Capital. Based on cutting-edge scientific advances in the field of immunometabolism, META has built an AI (artificial intelligence)-powered drug target discovery platform for metabolic pathways. By partnering with AI-driven drug discovery company XtalPi, META is developing first-in-class drugs targeting various chronic diseases caused by immune and metabolic system disorders, offering patients a new generation of safer and more effective autoimmune disease treatments.

This round of financing will be used to accelerate the advancement of three small-molecule targeted innovative drugs developed by META into clinical trials, and further expand the development of its AI-driven metabolic enzyme target discovery platform, completing predictions and validations across a broader range of different indications.

META Pharmaceuticals Inc. was founded in August 2021. The founding team comes from two top American research hospitals: Weill Cornell Medicine and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, with many years of in-depth research in the emerging interdisciplinary field of immunometabolism.

META Pharmaceuticals Inc. Focuses on Autoimmune Diseases, the Second Largest Therapeutic Area After Cancer

META Pharmaceuticals Inc. has discovered a series of novel targets for metabolic proteases based on the latest frontier achievements in immunometabolism biology theory. These discoveries can achieve safe and effective regulation of immune system functions, with the potential to develop a series of first-in-class drugs using an entirely new therapeutic strategy, offering autoimmune disease patients more ideal treatment options. Currently, META has three first-in-class projects in its pipeline, which are expected to begin clinical trials in both China and the United States in 2024. Among these is a small molecule inhibitor targeting a new mechanism and novel target, which has the potential to become a blockbuster platform drug for autoimmune diseases with broad indications, addressing a market worth hundreds of billions in the autoimmune space.

META's team deeply integrates cutting-edge research achievements in the field of immunometabolism with machine learning algorithms. It has preliminarily built an AI-powered drug target discovery platform for metabolic pathways. The platform includes a professional database with hundreds of public datasets, establishing disease models and intelligent analysis models based on multi-omics analysis to continuously drive META’s pipeline development. This platform, combined with META's team’s profound insights in the field of immunometabolism, creates unique R&D advantages and accelerates the transformation of its biological foundational research into new targets and pipeline drugs.

META, invested and incubated by Forcefield Ventures and AI drug discovery company XtalPi, has established a long-term in-depth cooperation in drug discovery with XtalPi. With new mechanisms and innovative solutions, META aims to provide more advanced solutions for unmet clinical needs and drug development bottlenecks in the field of autoimmune diseases. As a leading enterprise in the AI pharmaceuticals sector, XtalPi has extensive successful experience and reliable delivery capabilities in key R&D stages such as drug discovery, design, synthesis, and development post-target identification and prior to clinical trials. Through the close integration of AI algorithms, expert knowledge, and rapid experimental validation, XtalPi designs novel, highly active candidate compounds with ideal drug properties from scratch for META’s selected challenging innovative targets, comprehensively empowering META's innovative drug pipeline development. META’s capabilities in discovering and validating high-potential new immune metabolism targets are highly complementary to XtalPi’s one-stop AI-enabled new drug discovery capabilities. The strong collaboration between the two companies effectively streamlines the analysis and validation chain of new targets and mechanisms of action, thereby accelerating the transformation of cutting-edge scientific research into clinical pipelines and patented outcomes.

META is committed to becoming a global leader in the field of immune-metabolism therapy and a contributor to China's first-in-class new drugs. With the help of AI, it aims to accelerate the development of safer and more effective treatments for hundreds of millions of autoimmune disease patients worldwide.

After this round of financing, META will continue to advance its R&D collaboration with XtalPi, accelerate the entry of its three existing first-in-class pipeline drugs into clinical research, and further invest in the development of its multi-omics analysis AI platform to build a continuous self-sustaining capability and innovative barrier for META's R&D pipeline.As the first innovative drug company in China focusing on the emerging interdisciplinary field of metabolic immunity, META Pharmaceuticals Inc. will also establish a biological laboratory in Shenzhen to further enhance its scientific research capabilities in exploring new biological theories and promoting independent innovation, maintaining the company's leading position in the field of immune metabolism. The financing will also be used to support the expansion of the META team, leveraging the unique talent advantages and IT+BT industry ecosystem of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to quickly build a small but highly skilled professional research and management team.

Dr. Ke Xu, Founder and CEO of META Pharmaceuticals Inc.Stated: "We have achieved rapid progress in R&D within half a year of our startup and completed two rounds of financing, which would not have been possible without the support and trust of our investors and partners. We look forward to the three pipeline projects currently under research moving into clinical trials as soon as possible. With the help of AI, we will continue to explore the extensive therapeutic potential of immuno-metabolic targets in autoimmune diseases, cancer, aging-related diseases, and other fields. Focusing on significant unmet clinical needs, we aim to bring revolutionary new drugs to patients."

Shuhao Wen, Chairman and Co-founder of XtalPiRepresentative stated: "META's innovative platform can discover challenging first-in-class targets, which mutually validate and enhance the AI-driven intelligent drug discovery system of XtalPi with higher success rates and efficiency, creating more opportunities for breakthroughs in drug innovation. We have always focused on the transformation of scientific and technological achievements that balance economic benefits with social value. META’s pipeline covers major disease areas such as autoimmune diseases and cancer, presenting high innovation challenges and enormous market potential. We are highly optimistic about and will provide long-term support to this new drug team with strong execution capabilities. We also look forward to our cooperation continuously producing first-in-class innovative drugs."

Xiaowen Feng, Partner at Forcefield Ventures and IMO VenturesStated: "META is the first drug research and development company in China that focuses on immunometabolism targets. We value the team's profound academic background and efficient AI R&D capabilities, and we are also optimistic about the enormous potential of this track. The cutting-edge biological theoretical achievements of META Pharmaceuticals Inc. and the industry-leading AI drug R&D capabilities of XtalPi are a perfect match, with the ability to jointly develop groundbreaking new blockbuster drugs for autoimmune diseases, addressing the long-standing medication challenges faced by hundreds of millions of patients with autoimmune diseases."

Wei Guoxing, Partner of Tiantu Capital, the Leading Investor of Pre-A RoundExpressed: "I am very pleased to be involved in META, an innovative company with unique characteristics. Their research and development achievements will not only drive the innovation and development of China's pharmaceuticals industry but also have the potential to bring new breakthroughs to the global immuno-metabolic pharmaceuticals field as a first-in-class innovator. We highly anticipate that, with the deep integration of AI technology, META Pharmaceuticals Inc. will identify safer and more effective small-molecule compounds, significantly improving the quality of life for more patients."

META Pharmaceuticals Inc., a pioneering drug company based in Shenzhen that focuses on the research and development of therapeutics for autoimmune diseases, is composed of a team of biomedical Ph.D.s from Cornell University in the United States. The company has been co-invested and incubated by XtalPi, a trailblazer in AI-driven drug discovery, and Forcefield Ventures, a renowned venture capital firm. Leveraging cutting-edge emerging biological theories, META Pharmaceuticals aims to effectively modulate immune system functions by regulating cellular metabolic activity. The company is dedicated to developing safer and more effective novel targets for autoimmune diseases, with an emphasis on first-in-class innovative drug research, providing urgently needed medications for patients worldwide.

META Pharmaceuticals Inc. has established an in-depth cooperation in AI-driven drug discovery with XtalPi, integrating fundamental research capabilities with AI-powered one-stop drug discovery to jointly create a new paradigm for advancing AI+medical basic research into AI-based pharmaceuticals.

XtalPi is a drug research and development company empowered by quantum physics and artificial intelligence. By enhancing the speed, scale, innovation, and success rate of drug R&D, XtalPi is committed to driving industry transformation in pharmaceutical research. As a company based in China and the U.S. while serving the global market, XtalPi consistently explores optimal solutions to fully leverage cutting-edge R&D and computational resources, maximizing the satisfaction of clients and partners.

XtalPi's intelligent drug discovery platform integrates cloud-based supercomputing digital R&D tools with advanced experimental capabilities, forming a research system where high-precision predictions and targeted experiments verify and guide each other. As one of the global pioneers in AI-driven drug discovery, XtalPi has established a comprehensive iterative R&D process that closely combines quantum physics dry labs with advanced wet labs, challenging the efficiency bottlenecks of traditional R&D and empowering new drug discovery to achieve breakthroughs in speed and scale.

Forcefield Ventures is the biopharmaceutical fund of IMO Ventures, focusing on investing in and incubating early-stage biopharmaceutical projects. It has currently made early investments in startups with original core technologies such as METiS Pharmaceuticals, Bota Biosciences, Hopewell Therapeutics, and Life Bioscience.

IMO Ventures is an early-stage investment institution dedicated to technological innovation, with investment areas covering artificial intelligence, biomedicine, financial technology, new consumption, and other emerging industries. The investment regions span China, the United States, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa, and other countries and regions. The IMO investment team possesses an entrepreneurial spirit and experience, deeply understands the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, and believes that computing power will change the world. Currently, IMO manages four USD funds, one RMB fund, and several special-purpose funds. Representative early-stage investments include groundbreaking startups such as Guazi Used Cars, XtalPi, DeepHi Tech, Paytm, Conflux, and Lime in their respective fields.

TianTu Investment is one of the earliest professional institutions in China engaged in equity investment, pursuing in-depth research and specialization. It has offices in Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, with a professional investment team of dozens. Its investment cases include Honest Medical, Phoenix Medical, Zuodian, Hongkeyuan Medicine, Crystal Egg Biotech, Egret BioPharma, LaMango Bio, Feihe China, Nayuki's Tea, Pagoda, Xiaohongshu, Smiley Culture, Jiang Xiaobai, Aihuishou, Unknown Jun, etc.