Chemical.AI Secures $15M Series A+ Funding Led by Source Code Capital to Build Leading Intelligent Chemical Synthesis Platform

Chemical.AI recently announced the completion of a nearly $15 million Series A+ financing round,Led by Source Code Capital, with participation from Sequoia China, FreeS Fund, and Huafang Capital.，The proceeds from this financing will primarily be allocated to the development and optimization of the AI automated synthesis platform, as well as professional marketing and promotion. Previously, the company secured angel investment from FreeS Fund in 2019, and completed its Series A financing in 2021, led by Sequoia China Seed Fund with participation from ChaoSheng Capital and FreeS Fund.

Chemical AI (Chemical.AI) is a technology company specializing in AI-enabled chemical synthesis. It is dedicated to leveraging artificial intelligence and chemical big data to address chemical synthesis challenges during the preclinical phase of new drug development, significantly enhancing the efficiency of molecular synthesis. The founding team of Chemical AI has over a decade of deep expertise in the field of cheminformatics, possesses extensive R&D experience, and has accumulated a vast repository of specialized data from the chemical and chemical engineering industries. It stands as a pioneer in China within the niche sector of AI-enabled chemical synthesis.

Regarding securing this round of funding,Dr. Xia Ning, Founder & CEO of Chemical AIsaid: “Benefiting from the company's early establishment and solid technological foundation, the Chemical AI team has already achieved significant progress in intelligent synthesis, with broad development prospects. This is the primary reason why Chemical AI secured this round of financing. This funding will enable us to further optimize our automated synthesis platform and experimental data collection, positioning us as an AI platform enterprise serving synthetic R&D companies, and ultimately driving the entire molecular synthesis industry to advance from the 'manual era' into the 'intelligent phase.'”

In the field of chemical synthesis, despite the gradual adoption of automated equipment, enabling a computer to autonomously design its own synthetic procedures remains a significant challenge. The seamless integration of hardware, data, and software represents the most critical bottleneck. Although Professor E.J. Corey established the rules of retrosynthetic analysis in the 1960s, it was not until the second half of 2019 that MIT News published an article stating, “With the help of AI, robotic platforms can achieve automated molecular manufacturing.” This alone underscores the immense difficulty of realizing automated synthesis.

However, the Chemical AI team has accumulated extensive expertise in the specialized field of chemical synthesis over the years, achieving significant breakthroughs in the retrosynthesis stage. By leveraging custom algorithms to facilitate valuable data integration and reaction prediction, the team continuously refines its AI-automated synthesis platform to empower its R&D personnel. To date, it has established long-term collaborative partnerships with numerous major global pharmaceutical companies and leading CROs.

Chen Runze of Source Code Capital, Lead Investor for This Roundstated: “Source Code remains highly optimistic about the application potential of data science across all stages of drug discovery and development. Against the backdrop of industrial specialization, chemical synthesis has become one of the most standardized processes in pharmaceutical R&D and has already undergone preliminary digital transformation. Since 2005, numerous teams have continuously endeavored to advance the intelligentization of chemical synthesis; by around 2018, bolstered by emerging AI technologies, chemical synthesis algorithms had come exceptionally close to practical implementation. Over the past decade, the Chemical AI team has remained deeply committed to this field, accumulating extensive data and algorithmic expertise, and its developed products have gained recognition from top-tier industry clients; moving forward, Chemical AI is integrating automation with algorithms to establish a closed-loop system for intelligent chemical synthesis. We anticipate that Chemical AI will continue to lead globally in this domain, and we are confident that the company will provide critical infrastructure for the emerging paradigm of data-driven small molecule drug discovery and development.”

Source Code Capital was founded in the spring of 2014, dedicated to identifying and empowering leading enterprises in the wave of the information revolution. The firm currently manages $2.5 billion and RMB 8.8 billion in funds. Adhering to first-principles thinking and driven by in-depth research, Source Code Capital guides its investment decisions. Within its "Three Horizontal, Nine Vertical" investment framework, it has progressively invested in over 200 companies propelled by the three core themes of "Internet+", "Intelligence+", and "Global+", spanning major sectors including media & content, consumer services, industrial enterprises, finance, retail, automotive & real estate, and education & healthcare.

Partial member enterprises include: ByteDance, Meituan (3690.HK), Beike (NYSE:BEKE); Li Auto (NASDAQ:LI), NIU Technologies (NASDAQ:NIU), RELX (NYSE:RLX), Narwal, Ziroom, Juli, HuiZhaofang, Pagoda, Mogu (NYSE:MOGU), XinChao Media, Walnut Coding, Weimai, Huishoubao, Linji, Qingzhu, Chayan, WangBaobao, Bloke; Yijiupi, Yimidida, Medlink, Baibu, DianCloud, ZN United, Keenon Robotics, Chuxin, YunQuNa, Ruigu, CAS Autoparts, Che300; Qudian (NYSE:QD), Zichan360, Woniu Insurance, Ci Finance, Abotz; KrazyBee, Zenjoy, BLUE, OPay, etc.

Sequoia China has always been committed to helping entrepreneurs build enduring, great companies, delivering abundant global resources and valuable historical expertise to its portfolio enterprises. Over the past 49 years, Sequoia has invested in numerous innovative ventures and leaders driving industry trends. As the "entrepreneur behind the entrepreneurs," Sequoia China focuses on investment opportunities across three key sectors: TMT, healthcare, and consumer goods & services. Over the past 16 years, it has invested in nearly 600 enterprises characterized by distinct technological features, innovative business models, and high growth and development potential.

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.

Since its establishment six years ago, FreeS Fund has developed into a full-cycle fund management company driven by early-stage investments while actively expanding into growth-stage and mid-to-late stage portfolios. Committed to long-term value, guided by a research-driven approach, and dedicated to fostering innovation, FreeS Fund focuses on three core sectors: Consumer & TMT, Hard Tech, and Biomedicine. To date, it has invested in over 150 innovative enterprises, including Three Squirrels, 360 DigiTech, Uber Global, Unity, Qingtao Development, XtalPi, PatPat, CoYo Diagnostics, YeeFay Automation, Saturnbird Coffee, and Innoverna Biosciences.

Huafang Capital is an investment fund dedicated to the biomedical and broader healthcare sector, with a strategic focus on biopharmaceuticals, high-end medical devices, healthcare services, and healthcare informatics. To date, it has completed investments in leading enterprises across multiple niche segments. The core team of Huafang Capital has been deeply engaged in the pharmaceutical industry for many years, possessing profound insights into the healthcare sector and offering distinctive perspectives on industry development trends, project innovation and differentiation, and the capability building of founding teams. Leveraging extensive medical industry resources, Huafang Capital achieves full synergy with other listed healthcare entities under the Hualin Group, namely Kunming Pharmaceutical Group (600422) and Jianmin Group (600976), to comprehensively empower its portfolio companies and facilitate product upgrades, channel expansion, and horizontal and vertical integration across the industry value chain.