BV Capital and Merck China Innovation Center Announce Strategic Collaboration to Advance Innovation in AI and Life Sciences

On September 23, 2020, BV Baidu Ventures and the Merck China Innovation Center officially signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Beijing. Ms. Sun Zhengjie, Managing Director of the Merck China Innovation Center and Vice President of Strategy and Transformation at Merck China, and Mr. Liu Wei, CEO of BV Baidu Ventures, attended the signing ceremony.

The strategic partnership between Merck China Innovation Center and Baidu Ventures (BV) will leverage their respective professional expertise and innovative resources to advance the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements—from startups to industrial scale—in fields such as pharmaceuticals and healthcare, life sciences, high-performance materials, artificial intelligence, big data, and other emerging technologies. This collaboration aims to promote the development and implementation of innovative projects in China, further strengthen both parties’ global influence and appeal, foster a virtuous cycle driven by science and technology innovation, and jointly build an innovation ecosystem.

Ms. Sun Zhengjie, Managing Director of Merck China Innovation Center and Vice President of Strategy and Transformation at Merck China, stated, “Merck China Innovation Center has always been committed to collaborating with Chinese partners to build an innovation ecosystem. The areas of focus for Baidu Ventures, along with Baidu’s strengths in artificial intelligence and digitalization, align closely with Merck’s industrial advantages and innovation priorities. Merck China Innovation Center and Baidu Ventures previously co-invested in a company focused on AI chips, a shared area of interest. We believe this foundation will pave the way for even broader cooperation between the two parties.”

Mr. Liu Wei, CEO of Baidu Ventures (BV), stated, “Over the past three years since its establishment, BV has continuously strengthened its strategic investments in the AI-plus-life sciences sector and is poised to deepen its engagement in the bio-computing and intelligent life sciences markets with renewed intensity and innovative models. We look forward to collaborating with Merck China Innovation Center, whose industry insights in pharmaceuticals and healthcare, life sciences, and high-performance materials will undoubtedly provide fertile ground and a sustained strategic partnership for the implementation of cutting-edge intelligent technologies.”

At the Science and Technology Innovation Seminar and Strategic Cooperation Signing Ceremony held on the same day, Dr. Li Yi, Director of Merck China Innovation Center, further elaborated on several forward-looking innovation areas with the potential to evolve into new businesses, which are key focuses of the Center as an important part of Merck’s global innovation network. Discussions centered on cross-sector collaboration and the exploration of new technologies and innovative solutions. The aim is to work hand in hand with innovation partners to bring new technologies and solutions to the market, address challenges encountered in the development of the Chinese market, and support China’s transition toward an innovation-driven economy. Mr. Liu Wei, CEO of Baidu Ventures (BV), and Dr. Zhang Yuhao, Executive Director, highlighted the planning of BioMap, a biological computing platform initiated by BV. They expressed their hope to accelerate scientific discovery and facilitate industrial translation through biological computing, providing scientists and pharmaceutical R&D enterprises with enhanced capabilities for new data acquisition, analysis, and computation. They also looked forward to collaborating with industry stakeholders to jointly accelerate the establishment of an intelligent life science ecosystem.

Professor Zhang Zemin of Peking University, Professor Pei Jianfeng of Peking University, Professor Zeng Jianyang of Tsinghua University, and Professor Zhang Jian of Shanghai Jiao Tong University also shared insights and engaged in discussions on the theme of data- and artificial intelligence-driven scientific discovery and innovation in new drug development, thereby strengthening ties among ecosystem partners.

Meanwhile, eight startups from the third cohort of the Merck China Accelerator and its innovation ecosystem delivered impressive pitch presentations, connecting with ecosystem resources such as industry experts and investors to support startup growth and foster potential business collaboration opportunities.

Merck China Innovation Center is a vital component of Merck’s global innovation network, dedicated to identifying, incubating, and investing in innovative opportunities within and across its core business sectors—Healthcare, Life Science, Performance Materials—as well as beyond these established domains. Rooted in China’s innovation ecosystem, the Center actively fosters partnerships with startups, academic institutions, industry collaborators, and local governments. By integrating Merck Group’s unique technologies and expertise with those of its partners, the Center develops cutting-edge solutions tailored for the Chinese market and global operations. Furthermore, it provides inspiration, cultivation, and incubation support for local innovators, partners, and Merck employees, thereby achieving mutual growth and win-win collaboration.

BV Baidu Ventures, established in 2017, is an independent venture capital firm initiated by Baidu and managed by a professional team. Its investors include Baidu as well as other industrial and financial institutions. BV currently manages three USD and RMB funds with a total scale of $500 million, operating simultaneously in Beijing and San Francisco. Committed to becoming co-founders alongside AI entrepreneurs, BV aims to collectively elevate the horizons of artificial intelligence.

BV is striving for a more efficient, intelligent world: finer-grained perception, more precise decision-making, reduced labor costs, and superior efficiency models. Through strategic investments, BV is building a multi-domain intelligent ecosystem that integrates AI across various industries, discovers new technologies and platforms in biomedicine, and intelligently optimizes multiple processes within the healthcare industry. BV has invested in over 100 technology innovation enterprises, fueling the vision of AI-driven industrial transformation. In the biomedical sector alone, BV has strategically invested in more than 40 outstanding startups both domestically and internationally. Its investment focus spans diagnostics and companion diagnostics, drug discovery, manufacturing processes, and digital therapeutics. Portfolio companies are located in China, the United States, and Europe, and include Atomwise, Insilico Medicine, Coral Genomics, Engine Biosciences, Rootpath, Kebotix, Sherlock Biosciences, ChenAn Biologics, Qitan Technology, and Neuracle.