BioMap, Founded by Robin Li, Submits IPO Prospectus as a Biocomputing-Driven Life Science Platform

BioMap is positioned as a life sciences company driven by computational biology technologies, dedicated to accelerating the research and development of innovative drugs and precision life science products such as early screening and diagnosis through high-performance biological computing and multi-omics data technologies. It strives to make more diseases predictable, controllable, and curable, thereby realizing the dream of healthy longevity for humanity.

BioMap was born in an era of explosive growth in biological data. Thanks to advances in underlying data acquisition technologies such as genomics, research into the mechanisms of human disease within the life sciences community has reached a level of precision that encompasses whole-genome and transcriptomic analyses of individual cells from individual patients. This granularity fully reveals heterogeneity among different individuals, time points, and cell types, providing substantial potential for personalized targeted drug development, ultra-early disease diagnosis, and refined disease subtyping. Meanwhile, capabilities such as atomic-level observation and analysis of drug components, continuous data collection during drug experimentation, and base-pair-level gene editing have laid a solid foundation for precise drug design. However, the massive volumes of data generated by these technologies, along with the ensuing demands for data mining, analysis, and matching, have significantly exceeded the capacity of traditional platforms and tool frameworks in the life sciences industry. Challenges such as high-fidelity protein simulation, omics data mining for millions of cells at the petabyte scale, high-throughput organ-on-a-chip systems, and semantic understanding of neuronal information in brain-computer interfaces require more cutting-edge technologies—including AI algorithms, specialized chips, supercomputing, intelligent sensors, and robotics—as well as more systematic bio-computing platforms and intelligent tools for drug design and human insight mining to accelerate their resolution.

BioMap’s business strategy will be rolled out in two major phases. In the first phase, the company will leverage cutting-edge AI technologies to build a comprehensive bio-computing platform. Driven by both in-house R&D and strategic industrial investments, BioMap will collaborate with startups and research institutions specializing in new data axes and vertical-specific analysis, design, and computational tools to construct a robust bio-computing ecosystem. This ecosystem will provide life sciences enterprises and scientific researchers with rich toolsets and end-to-end solutions, ensuring high-quality service delivery. In the second phase, BioMap will deeply engage in or lead the development of novel precision therapeutics and diagnostic products, working hand-in-hand with partners to deliver highly innovative precision life science products that benefit society.

Building on its bio-computing platform, BioMap will also make substantial investments in the research and development of critical underlying data infrastructure and computational technologies. This includes accelerating the R&D of high-throughput organ-on-a-chip systems, high-resolution material observation equipment, novel omics data acquisition and analysis instruments, as well as specialized chips for protein simulation and bio-computing. These efforts aim to introduce new data dimensions and computational capabilities to the life sciences industry, thereby achieving autonomous control over these key generic platform technologies.

In the brand name “BioMap,” “Bai” (Hundred) symbolizes humanity’s long-standing dream of living a healthy life to the age of one hundred, while also reflecting the company’s origins in leveraging Baidu’s foundational AI capabilities to build a biological computing platform. “Tu” (Map) is derived from the Chinese idiom “following clues to find the horse,” signifying the aspiration to provide the industry with a superior BioMap in the era of rapidly expanding biological data. This platform aims to help pharmaceutical companies discover compounds, assist physicians in identifying biomarkers, and enable researchers to uncover the significance behind diverse biological datasets.

Robin Li, the lead founder of BioMap, holds a firm belief and long-standing commitment to the life sciences. He has been focusing on AI-empowered life science technologies for nearly three decades, having applied for positions in bioinformatics research as early as his time on Wall Street. In 2016, he co-established the Future Science Prize, known as “China’s Nobel Prize,” which awards up to $1 million per category. Within the Future Science Prize framework, Li has consistently focused his donations on the Life Science Award. As one of the most globally recognized leaders in AI, Li firmly believes that advancements in computing power and the declining costs of gene sequencing will unlock new possibilities for life sciences research. Under his leadership, Baidu became the first company in China to focus on the research and investment in biological computing algorithms. The establishment of this dedicated life sciences company enables Baidu to realize greater value from its accumulated bio-AI algorithms through commercial applications driven by a professional R&D team specializing in life sciences.

Liu Wei, another co-founder of BioMap and current CEO of BV Baidu Ventures, will assume the role of CEO at the company. As a seasoned AI investor with 18 years of experience in frontier technology venture capital, Liu has systematically invested in foundational artificial intelligence technologies and industry applications since 2011. He made angel investments in over 100 AI enterprises in China and the United States, including Megvii. Since 2014, he has strategically positioned himself in the biological data and computational industries. Upon becoming CEO of BV Baidu Ventures in 2017, he established bio-computation as a core strategic focus for BV, making early-stage investments in more than 40 bio-computing companies across China, the United States, and Europe. These investments include over ten AI-driven drug design companies in various niche sectors and more than 20 novel biological data axis companies, covering diverse frontier areas such as nanopore sequencing, single-cell mass spectrometry and molecular imaging, in vivo sensors, super-resolution imaging, high-throughput 3D pathology, and brain-computer interfaces. Following the establishment of BioMap, the company will further strengthen its collaboration with these frontier technology enterprises and pursue more aggressive industrial investment and M&A integration in new data axes, vertical-specific design tools, and pipelines for precision medicines and diagnostics, thereby enhancing synergies and fostering a thriving bio-computation ecosystem.

Joining Liu Wei in founding BioMap were more than ten PhDs in life sciences from prestigious institutions such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, the University of Hong Kong, UCLA, and Stanford University, with expertise spanning molecular biology, computational chemistry, genomics, and other technical fields. They were joined by several professionals with extensive experience in investment and corporate management within the biopharmaceutical and life sciences sectors. The company’s forming Scientific Advisory Board has also invited professors from renowned research institutions, including Tsinghua University, Peking University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Stanford University, and MIT.

As China’s first computation-driven life sciences company, BioMap anticipates a profound synergy with Baidu’s AI platform, which boasts extensive expertise in biological computing. This collaboration aims to bridge the critical gap between complex industry challenges and cutting-edge algorithms, accelerating the deployment of algorithms to realize commercial value while simultaneously refining the definition of computational problems, thereby exploring a novel paradigm for the practical application of Baidu’s AI. BioMap will establish a deep strategic partnership with PaddlePaddle, Baidu’s underlying deep learning platform. PaddlePaddle will provide BioMap with world-class foundational AI technologies and development tools. Iterating based on the needs of BioMap and its clients, PaddlePaddle will continuously introduce new algorithms and tools to rapidly build an open-source platform for the biological computing industry, offering the broader life sciences sector more open-source, efficient, and precise R&D tools.

BioMap hereby extends an invitation to top-tier experts in the fields of life sciences and artificial intelligence. With robust financial backing, we have committed to investing tens of billions over the coming years, reserved substantial equity for our founding team, and fostered a culture of innovation grounded in “bold hypotheses, rigorous verification.” We welcome industry experts to join us full-time or collaborate through co-established laboratories, addressing a suite of critical challenges jointly defined by BioMap and its industrial partners. Together, we aim to accelerate the research and practical application of biological computing, thereby advancing our mission—Leveraging Data To Improve Lives. Radically.