ChemLex Secures $26 Million Series A Funding Led by Qiming Venture Partners and LYFE Capital to Advance AI-Driven Automated Chemistry Platform

VCBeat has learned that Shanghai Magrui Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Magrui Chemistry”) has recently completed a $26 million Series A financing round. The round was co-led by Qiming Venture Partners and LYFE Capital, with follow-on investments from Sinovation Ventures and Maga Technology. The proceeds will be used to further enhance product research and development, expand commercial markets, and support international expansion.

Magerui Chemistry was established in January 2022, incubated by Maga and completed its angel round of investment. The company was founded by a team with international interdisciplinary backgrounds, dedicated to providing next-generation chemical synthesis CRO services to new drug R&D clients through automated and intelligent platforms. This significantly shortens the delivery cycle of the chemical synthesis phase in new drug development and substantially reduces costs associated with chemical synthesis, breaking away from the current state where medicinal chemistry synthesis heavily relies on manual operations.

Maga Chemistry leverages green chemistry technologies to deliver low-carbon, environmentally friendly ESG value to its clients, enhancing production efficiency and energy utilization in pharmaceutical synthesis while reducing environmental pollution and hazards to operators.

MagaChem has successfully completed the delivery of multiple commercial orders beyond expectations, earning high recognition from customers both domestically and internationally.

Dr. Lin Sen, Founder and CEO of Maga Chemistrystated: “We extend our sincere gratitude to both new and existing investors for their support and recognition of Magui Chemistry. Over the past two years since its establishment, Magui Chemistry has made steady progress in R&D achievements and commercialization, continuously reaching new milestones. Moving forward, we will continue to focus on developing an automated and intelligent synthetic CRO service platform. This initiative aims to provide cost-effective and efficiency-enhancing services along with ESG value to our clients, while also accelerating innovation in drug development to address unmet patient needs.”

Dr. Chen Kan, Partner at Qiming Venture PartnersAnalysis: “The synthesis of candidate drug molecules is a critical step in the drug development process. In the past, the design of synthetic routes and the execution of synthesis experiments for candidate molecules were performed by chemists, often involving iterative trial-and-error processes that hindered the rapid advancement of drug discovery. Although numerous algorithms and software tools for computer-aided retrosynthesis have been developed, their performance has been unsatisfactory due to reliance on limited and coarse data.” Dr. Chen Kan pointed out that Maga Chemistry has significantly improved the accuracy of retrosynthetic route design by leveraging novel AI algorithms combined with extensive, curated proprietary data generated internally. Meanwhile, Maga Chemistry’s automated workstations can handle diverse starting materials, conduct various types of chemical experiments, and collect multi-dimensional real-time data, greatly enhancing the efficiency of chemical synthesis. This liberates chemists from routine experimental tasks, allowing them to focus on more innovative challenges. “We are highly optimistic about the ‘AI-Automation-Chemistry’ closed-loop capability established by Maga Chemistry. We believe it will represent a ‘paradigm shift’ technology in future chemical synthesis, accelerating drug development and bringing therapeutic benefits to patients more rapidly.”

Dr. Xu Jing, Investment Director at LYFE Capital“He stated: ‘Chemical synthesis, through intelligent automation, can effectively reduce costs and shorten delivery cycles while being more environmentally friendly and safe, aligning with the future development trends of the industry. The ChemLex team boasts strong overseas academic and technical backgrounds, having truly achieved a tight integration of AI, automation, and chemical synthesis, thereby securing a leading position in the industry from a technological standpoint. We look forward to working closely with ChemLex to empower its commercialization and internationalization efforts, jointly providing pharmaceutical companies in China and abroad with higher-quality and more cost-effective medicinal chemistry synthesis services.’”

Mr. Feng Yadong, Investment Director at Sinovation Ventures“It is stated that, in an era where interdisciplinary integration of technology is becoming increasingly frequent, automation and digitalization have become the ‘infrastructure’ for a new generation of scientific research. Driven by these technologies, the pharmaceutical industry is poised to witness growing innovation and breakthroughs. Maga Chemistry boasts an experienced interdisciplinary team that empowers traditional chemical synthesis with AI and automation technologies, striving to overcome the many drawbacks associated with the highly labor-intensive nature of chemical synthesis, significantly improving the efficiency of drug R&D while reducing costs. We are delighted to collaborate with Maga Chemistry and look forward to seeing its development reach new heights.”

Mr. Huang Yuqing, Founder and CEO of Maga Technology“MagRui Chemistry is an outstanding enterprise incubated and invested by Maga in the field of chemical synthesis CRO, boasting a high-caliber, interdisciplinary top-tier team. Since its establishment, MagRui Chemistry has focused on the organic integration of automation, AI, and chemical synthesis, developing a series of artificial intelligence models and high-throughput automated systems. These innovations will help pharmaceutical companies and research institutions explore a broader druggable chemical space with higher efficiency and lower costs, significantly shortening the drug R&D iteration cycle. In the future, Maga will continue to provide comprehensive support to MagRui Chemistry, adhering to long-termism in green and low-carbon development, and contributing more strength to building a better and healthier world.”

Qiming Venture Partners, established in 2006, has successively set up offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Suzhou, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Currently, Qiming Venture Partners manages 11 US dollar funds and 7 RMB funds, with total assets under management reaching $9.5 billion. Since its inception, the firm has focused on investing in outstanding early-stage and growth-stage companies in the Technology and Consumer (T&C) and Healthcare sectors. To date, Qiming Venture Partners has invested in more than 530 high-growth innovative enterprises, among which over 200 have gone public on exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Shanghai Stock Exchange, and Shenzhen Stock Exchange, or exited through mergers and acquisitions. More than 70 of these portfolio companies have become industry-recognized unicorns or super unicorns.

LYFE Capital is a globally leading healthcare investment platform with offices and teams in Singapore, the United States, China, and South Korea. Upholding the belief that “healthcare knows no borders,” LYFE partners with companies poised to drive advancements in healthcare, addressing unmet needs worldwide. By leveraging its expertise and global resources, LYFE invests in and creates value for healthcare companies across the globe. Its experienced team possesses comprehensive knowledge of the global healthcare industry and continuously collaborates with and empowers portfolio companies to maximize their potential in the dynamic global market.

Founded by Dr. Kai-Fu Lee in September 2009, Sinovation Ventures is a leading technology-focused venture capital firm in China. It has deep expertise in artificial intelligence and hard tech, robotics and automation, enterprise software, health tech, and sustainable technology. Continuously exploring and innovating, Sinovation Ventures is committed to building a comprehensive ecosystem investment service platform that integrates entrepreneurial support, financial backing, and post-investment services.

Maga Technology, established in 2016, is a technology company dedicated to providing advanced productivity tools. By deeply integrating robotic automation and artificial intelligence with industry-specific applications, Maga empowers digital transformation in the fields of life sciences, clinical diagnostics, applied chemistry, and advanced manufacturing, contributing to a healthier and better world.