KeenThera Secures Tens of Millions in Series A Funding to Advance First-Principles-Based Drug Discovery in Cancer Metabolism

VCBeat (WeChat: vcbeat) has learned that recently, Suzhou Keen Therapeutics Co., Ltd. (Keen Therapeutics), a company dedicated to AI-powered novel drug discovery, completed a Series A financing round worth tens of millions of RMB. The round was led by Sherpa, with follow-on investment from its angel-round investor, FreeS Fund. The proceeds from this round will be used to enhance its drug discovery platform and advance pipeline projects.

Since its establishment, Keen Therapeutics has rapidly built a de novo drug design platform based on first principles, enabling systematic exploration of the entire chemical space and enhancing in silico discovery capabilities for novel targets. By efficiently integrating upstream and downstream partners and fully leveraging internal and external R&D synergies, the team has significantly accelerated the DMTA cycle, substantially reducing trial-and-error costs and development timelines. Powered by the iterative optimization capabilities of this discovery platform, the company has already achieved significant progress on multiple early-stage targets in cancer metabolism within less than a year.

The company’s founding team graduated from top domestic and international universities and research institutes, including Harvard University, the University of Cambridge, Peking University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. With extensive industry experience, the team has accumulated years of expertise in interdisciplinary fields such as chemical biology, biophysics, computational chemistry, and artificial intelligence. Focusing on unmet clinical needs in oncology and immunology, the team targets early-stage candidates with strong translational advantages, striving to deliver first-in-class small-molecule drugs to patients in the shortest possible time. Since its inception, the company has attracted attention from leading global pharmaceutical enterprises and was selected as an inaugural cohort member of the Roche Accelerator China.

Dr. Chen Yuedan, Vice President of Sherpa, stated that the team has a profound understanding of computational applications in drug discovery. Despite its relatively short history, it has already achieved breakthrough progress in overcoming bottlenecks in novel target molecular discovery, which has been validated across multiple projects. Particularly in the field of ferroptosis, Keen Therapeutics holds a leading position among global peers. Sherpa maintains a long-term optimistic outlook on the systematic new opportunities for small-molecule drug R&D in China, and looks forward to Keen Therapeutics becoming a new-generation biotechnology company with international competitiveness.

Dr. Wang Lei, Partner at FreeS Fund, stated that Dr. Wang Yikai, Founder of Keen Therapeutics, possesses extensive industry background and experience, along with distinctive insights into trends in new drug R&D. He has successfully navigated the role transition from R&D management to investment, and ultimately to entrepreneurship. As the company’s angel investor, FreeS Fund has witnessed the founding team’s execution and implementation capabilities, and firmly believes that Keen Therapeutics’ foundational innovations and efficiency enhancements will enable original innovative drugs from China to benefit patients worldwide at the earliest opportunity.

Sherpa is a specialized fund dedicated to early-stage healthcare investment. Adhering to an investment philosophy of building industry ecosystems, it constructs its portfolio based on in-depth expertise in major disease treatment areas to address unmet medical needs, with strategic investments spanning the industry's vertical depth and upstream/downstream value chains.

By proactively sharing operational expertise and a forward-looking perspective across the entire industry chain with portfolio companies, the team actively facilitates internal and external synergies, enabling enterprises to achieve rapid growth in business performance and corporate value while attaining leading positions in niche markets. Through strategic investments in industry-leading companies within sectors such as healthcare services, pharmaceuticals, gene technology, and medical devices, the firm has established comprehensive resource advantages spanning deal sourcing, post-investment value-added services, and exits. From 2011 to 2020, refined through four fund vintages and over 100 healthcare projects, we have been honored to partner with numerous outstanding entrepreneurs, achieving mutual growth.

Frees Fund (FREES FUND) is committed to mobilizing all available capital, technology, and resources to invest in outstanding startups and help them grow into great enterprises with long-term social and commercial value.

Over the six years since its establishment, FreeS Fund has evolved into a full-cycle fund management firm driven by early-stage investments, while actively deploying capital across growth-stage and mid-to-late-stage ventures. Focusing on three core sectors—Consumer & TMT, High Technology, and Biopharma—FreeS Fund has invested in over 150 innovative enterprises.