Xinhua Biologics Completes Pre-A Funding Round to Accelerate AI-Driven Macromolecular Drug Development

Recently, the industry-leadingAIVibrant Therapeutics (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. ("Vibrant"), a large molecule drug research and development company, has successfully completed a RMB billion financing round.pre-ARound of financing. This round of financing was led by Matrix Partners China, with participation from HongShan and the company's existing investor, Guangzhou Redhill Equity Investment Management Co., Ltd. CEC CAPITAL served as the exclusive financial advisor to Vibrant Therapeutics in this transaction. After completing this round of financing, Vibrant Therapeutics will accelerate the advancement of itsAIDrive the development of macromolecular drugs.

Vibrant Therapeutics was founded in 2019 by Dr. Larry Wang (Wang Luquan), the founder of Genscript. The company's core leadership team has an average of over 20 years of experience in large molecule drug development and has held key positions in well-known pharmaceutical and biotech companies such as Schering-Plough, Merck, and Genscript. Leveraging the team’s deep expertise in bioinformatics, deep learning algorithms, protein engineering, and immunology, Vibrant Therapeutics is committed to building an AI-driven intelligent large molecule drug development platform to improve the quality and efficiency of large molecule drug research. Currently, Vibrant Therapeutics focuses on applying AI in areas with significant unmet medical needs, such as cancer immunotherapy. The proceeds from this round of funding will primarily be used for expanding AI computing and biological platforms, enhancing the talent pool, and advancing self-developed projects.

To address the challenge of large-molecule drug structure prediction, Vibrant Therapeutics has released VibrantFold, an antibody structure prediction tool based on its proprietary deep learning framework. During internal testing, VibrantFold demonstrated industry-leading computational efficiency and can be used for high-precision antibody structure prediction. Using unpublished antibody structures provided by Professor Zhang Linqi's team and Professor Wang Xinquan's team from Tsinghua University, as well as Researcher Zhou Qiang's team from Westlake University, researchers compared the differences between predicted and experimental structures generated by VibrantFold and two internationally leading protein prediction platforms, AlphaFold2 and RoseTTAFold. The comparison results showed that VibrantFold successfully achieved antibody structure predictions with comparable accuracy, reaching a globally leading level, while significantly outperforming in prediction speed and computational efficiency, making its industrial application feasible.

Dr. Luquan Wang, CEO of Vibrant, stated: "The development of innovative biopharmaceuticals is growing at a rapid pace, outpacing the overall pharmaceutical market. The digital transformation within this field not only helps to overcome the current limitations of time-consuming, labor-intensive, and costly drug research and development that hinder sustainable growth but also promotes comprehensive changes across the entire biopharmaceutical industry. By organically integrating data, algorithms, and biological experiments, AI will significantly shorten the new drug R&D cycle, improve the quality of drug development, reduce R&D costs, and usher in a new era of precision drug discovery for biologics. Vibrant thanks all our investors for their support, and we will continue to build a world-leading AI-powered large molecule drug discovery platform. We hope that Vibrant's efforts will accelerate this transformative shift in drug research and address unmet medical needs for patients. We also warmly welcome computational or drug discovery talents with innovative aspirations to join Vibrant."

Dr. Yu Zhiyun, partner of Matrix Partners China, stated: "Matrix has long been optimistic about fundamental innovation and has continuously invested in potential Global First-in-Class innovative drug platforms. AI-driven drug discovery requires a dual approach of dry lab and wet lab efforts. Vibrant’s AI computing platform has achieved world-leading status in antibody structure prediction, not only matching the accuracy of Alphafold2 but also far surpassing it in computational efficiency, marking a disruptive breakthrough in the industry. On the wet lab side, the team demonstrates deep understanding of antibodies and possesses extensive experience in modification and preparation. Dr. Wang Luquan is a veteran in bioinformatics and has previously had highly successful entrepreneurial experiences in biotech companies. We believe that under Dr. Wang's leadership, Vibrant Therapeutics will continue to deliver surprises and bring benefits to patients in China and around the globe."

Dr. Cuiping Gu, Managing Director of HongShan, stated: "HongShan has been closely monitoring the transformative impact of new technologies such as AI computing on drug discovery. The application of AI to the virtual screening and optimization of antibody drugs involves the integration of multidisciplinary expertise. The founding team of Vibrant Therapeutics has extensive experience in the healthcare industry and has spent over two years building a foundational technology platform that combines computational methods with experimental validation to accelerate product development. We look forward to Vibrant Therapeutics' platform bringing more differentiated biologic drug products to the underserved oncology treatment market."

Dr. Li Jie, Managing Director of Guangzhou Redhill Equity Investment Management Co., Ltd., stated: "As the earliest investor in Vibrant Therapeutics, we are very grateful for the hard work of the Vibrant team over the past year, and we also thank the new investors for their recognition. We deeply feel the disruptive changes that big data and algorithm iteration bring to the biopharmaceutical field, and we highly anticipate Vibrant Therapeutics' outstanding performance in this blue ocean market."

Dr. Zhang Xiao, Partner of CEC CAPITAL, stated: "Vibrant Therapeutics has built a unique barrier for its AI-driven large molecule drug platform by leveraging the team's extensive experience in large molecule drug development, a solid biological experimental platform, and high-quality data accumulation, becoming a leader in China’s AI large molecule pharmaceutical field. The CEC CAPITAL team is honored to partner with Vibrant Therapeutics in completing this round of financing. We also believe that this will provide strong support for maintaining the company’s leading position in technology and product development. As the first pipeline advances to the CMC and clinical stages, the company will systematically initiate independent and collaborative development across multiple pipelines and disease areas globally. We look forward to Vibrant Therapeutics becoming a global leader in the AI large molecule drug field in the near future."

Vibrant Therapeutics is a leading AI-driven large molecule drug discovery company founded in 2019 by a seasoned team of antibody drug engineering and computational scientists. The company’s team possesses deep expertise in large molecule drug development along with exclusive advantages in engineering development data. Its innovative target discovery platform and cutting-edge algorithm platforms for antibody structure and engineering have achieved generational technological breakthroughs. Currently focused on unmet medical needs in areas such as cancer immunotherapy, multiple projects have already yielded positive biological validation data.

Matrix Partners China (MPCi), founded in 2008, is a leading VC that has long focused on early-stage and early-growth investments within the industry. The firm concentrates on investments in smart manufacturing, hard technology, aerospace, consumer goods, enterprise services & B2B & trading platforms, healthcare, and other fields. To date, MPCi has invested in over 700 companies, including XPeng Motors, Li Auto, Futu Securities, Guazi Used Cars, Ele.me, Youzan, Ronbay Technology, XGIMI Technology, Momo, PingCap, Peijia Medical, CEC Capital, Berry Oncology, Lexin, Zihaiguo, Chuanzhi Education, Genor Biopharma, Jane Eyre, SemiDrive, i-Space, and more.

HongShan has always been committed to helping entrepreneurs build enduring great companies, bringing global resources and valuable historical experience to its portfolio companies. As the "entrepreneurs behind entrepreneurs," HongShan focuses on investment opportunities in three areas: TMT, healthcare, and consumer goods/services. Over the past 16 years, HongShan has invested in more than 900 companies with distinct technological features, innovative business models, and high growth and development potential.

Guangzhou Redhill Equity Investment Management Co., Ltd. focuses on early-stage investments in innovative medical technology enterprises. The core management and investment team comes from well-known venture capital fund management companies in China. Founding partners Lu Qinchao and Su Zhenbo both have nearly two decades of experience in the medical industry and investment. Guangzhou Redhill currently manages multiple RMB funds and one USD fund. Its fund investors include renowned market-oriented mother funds, asset management companies, government-guided funds, industrial capital, family offices, and well-known publicly listed companies.

CEC CAPITAL is a leading new economy investment bank in China, focusing on the three major industries of TMT, consumer, and healthcare globally. In addition to its investment banking services, CEC CAPITAL manages both a Renminbi fund and a US Dollar fund. The company has branches in Beijing, Shanghai, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, and holds a license for the US securities market. The healthcare industry is one of CEC CAPITAL’s key areas of focus where it possesses deep expertise and significant advantages. For four consecutive years, it has been the new economy investment bank with the most healthcare industry transaction records in China. Additionally, CEC CAPITAL boasts the largest, most professional, and comprehensively covered healthcare investment banking team in China.