AI-Powered Drug Discovery Company AIxplorerBio Secures RMB 50 Million in Angel Funding Led by BioMap and Viva Biotech

Investment Circle (ID: pedaily2012), April 26 – AI-driven drug discovery company AIxplorerBio recently announced the completion of a RMB 50 million angel financing round. The round was led by BioMap, with Viva Biotech participating as a co-investor. As strategic investors, BioMap and Viva Biotech will also provide comprehensive, in-depth support to AIxplorerBio across multiple areas, including AI technology, computational power, foundational multi-dimensional data, protein structure elucidation, and medicinal chemistry experimentation.

It is reported that AIxplorerBio, established in January 2021, focuses on the research and development of novel drugs for autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases, striving to create a new AI-driven paradigm for drug discovery.

Dr. Xu Daqiang, Founder and CEO of AIxplorerBio, earned his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Peking University and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the United States. Prior to founding the company, he spent many years working in R&D, marketing and sales, new product initiation, development, and commercialization at multinational pharmaceutical giants such as Novartis. He has also participated in investments in several innovative drug startups. Dr. Jiang Xuliang graduated successively from Peking University and Columbia University in the United States. He previously worked at Merck Serono and brings over twenty years of experience in computational chemistry, having contributed to multiple drug development projects.

Judging by its investor lineup, Viva Biotech was established in 2008 and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2019. As a comprehensive structure-based drug discovery platform company, Viva Biotech possesses multiple core technology platforms, including “structure-based drug discovery” and “affinity mass spectrometry screening.” Several FDA-approved marketed drugs and “first-in-class” new drugs in clinical trials have been discovered and undergo early-stage development through Viva Biotech’s new drug R&D platform.

BioMap, founded in September 2020, is a life sciences platform company driven by computational biology technologies. The company was founded by Baidu's founderRobin LiSpearheaded the establishment and personally served as Chairman of the new company; former CEO of BV Baidu VenturesLiu WeiAs a co-founder, serves as the CEO of BioMap.

It has been disclosed that BioMap will provide AIxplorerBio with technical support for its biological computing engine, computational power, and high-throughput data acquisition and analysis capabilities. Leveraging its expertise in drug development and accumulated experience in validation technologies, AIxplorerBio will collaborate with BioMap through joint investments to develop a high-risk, high-value pipeline targeting autoimmune diseases. The partnership will focus on therapeutic areas lacking effective treatment targets, utilizing BioMap’s immune atlas for novel target discovery and accelerating drug development via the new platform.

Viva Biotech will contribute its high-efficiency new drug R&D platform to AIxplorerBio, providing technologies such as target-protein structure elucidation, chemical and biosynthesis, and biological validation to enable rapid early-stage new drug discovery and optimization.

In addition to pure financial support, BioMap and Viva Biotech have also provided the company with technical investments at the hundred-million-yuan level through business cooperation, and will continue to increase their commitment in the future.