BioMap Secures Over $100 Million in Series A Funding to Advance AI-Driven Drug Discovery Platform

On July 30, BioMap, a biocomputing platform, announced the completion of a Series A financing round exceeding $100 million. The round was led by GGV Capital, with participation from Baidu, Legend Capital, BlueRun Ventures China, Zhenzhi Capital, and Xianghe Capital. Company founder Robin Li continued to make additional investments. The proceeds from this round will be primarily used for technological research and development and talent acquisition.

BioMap, positioned as a platform enterprise for innovative drug R&D driven by a biocomputing engine, was founded in November 2020 under the leadership of Robin Li, who serves as its Chairman.

BioMap was born in an era of exponential growth in biological data. Benefiting from advancements in underlying data acquisition technologies such as genomics, ultra-early disease diagnosis and precise molecular subtyping have become possible. Meanwhile, atomic-level observation and structural analysis of drug building blocks have laid a solid foundation for precision drug design. The era calls for more systematic bio-computing platforms and more intelligent tools for drug design and human insight mining. In response to this imperative, BioMap emerged.

Specifically, BioMap primarily leverages advanced computing and biotechnology to efficiently extract knowledge from multi-omics biological data, high-throughput validation experiments, and drug development experience. By mapping disease targets and drug design, it transforms drug discovery from a "needle-in-a-haystack" approach into a "map-guided" strategy, thereby enhancing the drug R&D efficiency for both itself and its partners, with the ultimate goal of developing Global First-in-class novel drugs.

In the future, BioMap will primarily focus on research into the immune mechanisms underlying cancer, autoimmune diseases, and fibrotic diseases.

In May this year, BioMap launched the "Immune Atlas Excellence Initiative". Through this program, BioMap will provide its self-developed core biocomputing engine, massive proprietary datasets, and RMB 1 billion in funding subsidies to collaborate with ecosystem alliance partners in jointly advancing the mapping of the immune atlas, systematically exploring the complex immune mechanisms of diseases such as cancer and autoimmune disorders, and further enhancing the efficiency of corresponding target discovery and drug design.

Figure: BioMap's "Immune Atlas Excellence Program" (Source: Provided by BioMap)

As of the end of July, the first batch of the "Excellence Program" has received applications from nearly 100 clinical and research teams affiliated with institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Fudan University.

The BioMap team pointed out that for “AI + biopharmaceuticals” to truly deliver its potential, AI technologies must be practically integrated into every stage of the drug discovery process. To this end, BioMap is currently establishing its own in-house laboratories to systematically address industry challenges and enhance operational efficiency across the entire end-to-end workflow.

Following this round of financing, BioMap will further intensify the development of its bio-computing engine, continue R&D in multi-omics, high-throughput experimental, protein computing, and high-performance bio-computing technologies, step up talent acquisition efforts, and advance its initial drug development pipelines to new milestones.