Recently, ChemLex completed a $26 million Series A financing round led by Qiming Venture Partners and LYFE Capital, with Sinovation Ventures and MegaRobo participating. The funds will be used to further improve product development, expand into commercial markets, and support international expansion.

ChemLex was established in January 2022, incubated by MegaRobo and completed angel investment. The company was founded by a team with an international interdisciplinary background, dedicated to providing a new generation of chemical synthesis CRO services for drug development customers using automated and intelligent platforms. This significantly shortens the delivery cycle of the chemical synthesis process in the drug development cycle, and significantly reduces the costs associated with chemical synthesis, breaking free from the current high dependence on manual operations in medicinal chemistry synthesis.

ChemLex utilizes green chemistry technology to provide customers with low-carbon and environmentally friendly ESG value, improve the production efficiency and energy utilization of drug synthesis, reduce environmental pollution, and minimize harm to operators.

ChemLex has successfully exceeded expectations in delivering multiple commercial orders, receiving high recognition from customers at home and abroad.

Dr. Sean Lin, founder and CEO of ChemLex, said: "I am very grateful for the support and recognition of both new and old investors in ChemLex. In the two years since its establishment, ChemLex has steadily progressed in research and development achievements and commercialization, continuously achieving new milestones. In the future, we will continue to focus on developing an automated, intelligent CRO service platform for synthesis, providing customers with cost-effective services and ESG value, while also accelerating innovation in drug development to address unmet patient needs."

Dr. Chen Kan, a partner at Qiming Venture Partners, analyzed: "The synthesis of candidate drug molecules is a key step in the drug development process. In the past, the design of synthesis pathways and the experimental operations were done by chemists, with a lot of trial and error processes, limiting the rapid progress of drug development. Although there have been many algorithms and software for chemical retrosynthesis in the past, the results were not satisfactory due to being based on limited and rough data."Dr. Chen Kan pointed out that ChemLex, through a new AI algorithm combined with a large amount of proprietary data, has greatly improved the accuracy of chemical retrosynthesis pathway design. At the same time, ChemLex's automated workstation can manipulate different types of starting materials, perform different types of chemical experiments, and collect multidimensional real-time data, greatly improving the efficiency of chemical synthesis. This frees chemists from routine experimental processes, allowing them to focus on more innovative problems. "We are very optimistic about the 'AI-Automation-Chemistry' closed-loop capability established by ChemLex, believing that it will be a 'paradigm shift' in chemical synthesis in the future, accelerating drug development and bringing the gospel of disease treatment to patients faster."

Dr. Xu Jing, Investment Director of LYFE Capital, said: "Chemical synthesis can effectively reduce costs, shorten delivery cycles, and be more environmentally friendly and safe through intelligent automation, which is in line with the future development trend of the industry. The ChemLex team has a strong overseas academic and technical background, truly realizing the close integration of AI, automation, and chemical synthesis, leading the industry in technology. We look forward to closely cooperating with ChemLex, empowering them in commercialization and internationalization, and jointly providing higher quality and more cost-effective drug synthesis services to pharmaceutical clients at home and abroad.

Mr. Feng Yadong, Investment Director of Sinovation Ventures, said: "In the increasingly frequent interdisciplinary cross-cutting of science and technology, automation and digitization have become the 'infrastructure' of the new generation of scientific research. Under the promotion of these technologies, the pharmaceutical industry will also usher in more and more innovations and breakthroughs. ChemLex has an experienced interdisciplinary team that empowers traditional chemical synthesis with AI and automation technology, dedicated to breaking through the many drawbacks of highly labor-intensive chemical synthesis and significantly improving the efficiency of drug development while reducing costs. We are very pleased to cooperate with ChemLex and look forward to their further development.

Mr. Huang Yuqing, founder and CEO of MegaRobo, said: "ChemLex is an excellent company incubated and invested by MegaRobo in the field of chemical synthesis CRO, with a high-quality, interdisciplinary top team. ChemLex has been focusing on the organic fusion of automation, AI, and chemical synthesis since its establishment, and has developed a series of artificial intelligence models and high-throughput automation systems, which will help pharmaceutical companies and research institutions explore a broader chemical space for drug development with higher efficiency and lower cost, significantly shortening the drug development iteration cycle. In the future, MegaRobo will continue to provide comprehensive support for ChemLex, adhere to the long-term philosophy of green and low-carbon development, and contribute more to the construction of a better and healthier future world.

About Qiming Venture Partners

Qiming Venture Partners was established in 2006 and has offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Suzhou, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Currently, Qiming Venture Partners manages 11 USD funds and 7 RMB funds, with a total managed assets of 9.5 billion USD. Since its establishment, Qiming Venture Partners has focused on investing in early-stage and growth-stage excellent companies in the technology and consumer (T&C), healthcare, and other industries. Up to now, Qiming Venture Partners has invested in more than 530 high-growth innovative companies, with over 200 companies listed 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 companies have become industry-recognized unicorns or super unicorns.

About LYFE Capital

LYFE Capital is a leading global healthcare investment platform with offices and teams in Singapore, the United States, China, and South Korea. LYFE believes in the concept of "healthcare without borders" and collaborates with companies that have the potential to drive healthcare progress, addressing unmet needs on a global scale. With their expertise and global resources, LYFE invests globally and creates value for healthcare companies. The experienced team at LYFE has a comprehensive understanding of the global healthcare industry and continuously works together with invested companies to maximize their potential in the dynamic global market.

About Sinovation Ventures

Sinovation Ventures, founded by Dr. Kai-Fu Lee in September 2009, is a leading technology-focused venture capital firm in China. Sinovation Ventures deeply cultivates in the fields of artificial intelligence and hard technology, robotics and automation, enterprise service software, medical technology, sustainable technology, and continuously explores and innovates. It is committed to building a comprehensive ecological investment service platform that integrates entrepreneurship platform, funding support, and post-investment services.

About MegaRobo

MegaRobo, established in 2016, is a technology company that focuses on providing advanced productivity tools. It is dedicated to empowering digital innovation in the fields of life sciences, clinical diagnostics, applied chemistry, and advanced manufacturing through the deep integration of robotics automation, artificial intelligence technology, and industry applications, making the world healthier and better.