METiS Pharmaceuticals Secures Over RMB 100 Million in Series Angel+ and Pre-A Funding to Advance AI-Driven Drug Formulation Platform

On December 3, METiS Pharmaceuticals (Hangzhou Jitai Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd., hereinafter referred to as “METiS”) officially announced the completion of its Angel+ and Pre-A financing rounds, raising over RMB 100 million.Among them,The Angel+ round was led by Sequoia Capital China, with participation from FreeS Fund, Source Code Capital, XtalPi, and Forcefield Venture. The Pre-A round was led by Lightspeed China Partners, with participation from 5Y Capital (formerly Morningside Venture Capital), while existing investors further increased their stakes. Huaxing Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor for both rounds of financing.This financing marks a milestone. Post-financing, the company will continue to advance the development of its AI-driven formulation platform and expand collaborations with pharmaceutical companies, jointly propelling novel formulated drugs into clinical trials.

METiS was founded in 2017 by a team of MIT scientists and U.S. National Academy of Engineering members, including Cai Da Lai, Hongmin Chen, and Wenshou Wang. As the world’s first AI-driven startup focused on “drug formulation optimization,” METiS is dedicated to enhancing the efficiency of new drug development and creating low-risk, high-value formulated novel therapeutics.

The core of new drug development lies in “molecule + formulation,” as drugs must be formulated into appropriate dosage forms to be suitable for clinical use. This is because a drug’s efficacy is not only closely related to its chemical structure, but its absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion are also influenced by the dosage form. Inappropriate selection or unreasonable design of the dosage form can adversely affect the drug’s physicochemical and biological properties—such as appearance, stability, and dissolution rate—thereby compromising its safety and effectiveness in clinical applications. Currently, 90% of new drug candidates in development suffer from unstable pharmacokinetic properties, which invisibly increases development costs and the risk of failure. This is particularly true for biologics or biological therapies, where the lack of customized and precise formulation strategies or delivery systems often significantly undermines the accuracy and efficacy of drug delivery, fails to ensure safety, and prevents the achievement of precision medication and therapeutic goals.

METiS pioneered the establishment of an AI-driven formulation development platform, deeply integrating artificial intelligence with high-throughput formulation development technologies. This integration enables the faster and more intelligent generation of more rational formulation design paradigms, a greater diversity of formulation forms, and more optimized formulation prescriptions, thereby effectively overcoming the pain points of traditional formulation development models, which heavily rely on expert experience and use trial-and-error methods to find optimal solutions.

To date, METiS has established its laboratory operations in China and attracted a large pool of talent with expertise in drug development and AI simulation from both domestic and international markets, continuously strengthening and expanding its R&D team. Furthermore, METiS has entered into strategic cooperation agreements with multiple renowned pharmaceutical companies, engaging in multi-dimensional, close collaborations that include the joint development of differentiated novel drug formulations.

Dr. Lai Caida, Co-founder and CEO of METiS, stated, “Given the broader context of heightened drug development efficiency and significantly compressed margins for generic drugs, the pharmaceutical industry is facing declining returns on new drug R&D investment, creating an urgent need for more efficient drug innovation. Meanwhile, a substantial number of clinical needs remain unmet, and many novel therapeutic modalities continue to face significant challenges in translational development. In recent years, artificial intelligence has achieved breakthrough results across various fields, such as AlphaFold solving the long-standing problem of protein folding. METiS is dedicated to building new infrastructure for AI-driven drug delivery R&D, establishing core technologies in AI algorithms, molecular simulation, mathematical modeling, and high-throughput experimentation. By collaborating with global pharmaceutical companies, we are exploring and validating the value of our platform, while actively working with partners to advance improved new drugs with differentiated clinical profiles.”

Cao Xi, Partner at Sequoia Capital China Fund, stated, “Sequoia China continues to closely monitor breakthroughs driven by new technologies in the field of new drug development, propelling the traditional ‘trial-and-error’ pharmaceutical model toward a ‘science-driven’ paradigm. Metis is a highly unique company we have identified in this direction. By focusing on formulation optimization, it addresses critical pain points and enables rapid implementation, while also extending further into the development of novel formulated drugs, offering substantial market potential. The core team possesses interdisciplinary expertise in computation, pharmaceutics, chemical engineering, and materials science, and has successfully validated its technological advantages, making it both exceptional and scarce.”

Gao Jiankai, Assistant Partner at Lightspeed China Partners, stated, “The COVID-19 pandemic has made healthcare and biopharmaceuticals key sectors of high expectation for both capital markets and the public. New drug development is characterized by three major high-risk factors: high costs, long R&D cycles, and low success rates. Major pharmaceutical companies are urgently seeking solutions that can shorten development timelines, effectively improve success rates, and develop competitive, cutting-edge therapies. Leveraging its outstanding scientific research capabilities and translational strength, the METiS team has created unique value in the field of AI-assisted drug discovery, a fact further evidenced by its consecutive and rapid successful financing rounds. Lightspeed believes that METiS will undoubtedly drive pharmaceutical innovation in China. We will continue to accompany and support METiS’s growth, contributing to the enhancement of human health and well-being.”

Jing Xutian, Executive Director at Source Code Capital, stated, “AI plays a pivotal role in many aspects of new drug development. While identifying novel drug molecules for specific targets is naturally a core area, pharmaceutical formulation development represents a scenario closer to practical application and has long been an underserved yet critical vertical in the industry. Identifying the optimal formulation can enable drug molecules to achieve their best clinical performance. METiS has not only independently developed AI algorithms for screening drug formulations but also established a high-throughput, automated formulation testing platform. This platform facilitates the rapid accumulation of large-scale data to create feedback loops, thereby maximizing the speed of formulation discovery and optimization. In today’s pharmaceutical industry, which is becoming increasingly technology-driven and specialized, we believe that METiS’s optimization of the formulation segment can provide the best downstream infrastructure for future new drug discovery technology companies, laying a solid foundation for accelerating the global market launch of new drug molecules.”

Zhou Xiang, Head of the Financial Advisory Division at China Renaissance, stated, “We are delighted to have continued supporting METiS through its successful Angel+ and Pre-A financing rounds, following our assistance in securing its Angel round. Amidst the longstanding challenges of traditional drug discovery—characterized by lengthy development cycles, high costs, and significant risks of failure—AI-assisted drug development has emerged in recent years as a sector attracting substantial capital interest. We believe that with the support of this financing, METiS will further expand its advantages in team building, technology, and pharmaceutical partnerships, continuously breaking through key bottlenecks in drug development and achieving new milestones. It has been our privilege to witness METiS’s rapid growth, and China Renaissance remains committed to serving as METiS’s long-term partner in the capital markets, accompanying the company on its journey forward.”