5Y News | 5Y Capital Portfolio Company METiS Pharmaceuticals Closes $100 Million Series C Round
Focused on "AI-powered drug delivery."
On June 21, 2024, METiS Pharmaceuticals, an innovative biotechnology company focused on "AI + drug delivery," announced the completion of a $100 million Series C funding round led by CICC Capital, with participation from Taiping Hong Kong Insurance Sci-Tech Innovation Fund, a subsidiary of China Taiping Insurance Group. Combined with previous investments from top-tier firms including HSG, China Life Private Equity Investment Company Limited, PICC Equity, 5Y Capital, FreeS Fund, Source Code Capital, Luminous Ventures, and Monolith, METiS has now raised nearly $300 million in total funding.
Founded in 2020 by Hongming Chen, a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, alongside MIT scientists Dr. Caida Lai and Dr. Wenshou Wang, METiS leverages artificial intelligence to drive precision-targeted drug delivery and drug discovery. The company develops innovative nanomaterials and creates more effective therapeutics for patients, and has become one of the world's leading drug delivery platforms. Proceeds from this round will primarily fund continued development of its AI + drug delivery platform and advancement of its proprietary pipeline, supporting METiS's ongoing innovation in the drug delivery space.
According to Nova One Advisor projections, the CGT and mRNA therapeutics market is expected to surge to $156.2 billion by 2033 — a massive opportunity that has drawn significant attention from investors and companies alike. In CGT and mRNA drug development, "drug delivery" technology is the critical bottleneck ensuring successful intracellular expression, encompassing challenges like targeting specific tissues and organs, efficient intracellular delivery, and endosomal escape. To put it simply, the delivery process is like a rocket precisely placing a satellite into a specific orbit so it can operate properly.
As a leader in the "AI + drug delivery" field, METiS started from scratch in the absence of open-source datasets and delivery-related algorithms, pioneering AI and computational simulation algorithms for ionizable lipid generation and design as well as LNP nanomaterial design and simulation. Combined with world-leading high-throughput experimental technology and animal validation platforms, the company has built proprietary data and algorithm moats. METiS has now independently developed three core AI + technology platforms: the AI-driven Nucleic Acid Delivery System Design Platform (AiLNP), the AI-driven mRNA Sequence Design Platform (AiRNA), and the AI-driven Small Molecule Formulation Design Platform (AiTEM). It has also established a distinctive wet-dry lab integration workflow that enables efficient drug delivery and drug discovery.
Building on its AI drug delivery platform and harnessing rapidly advancing large language models and generative AI technology, METiS has created the world's first METiSLipidLM lipid language model and PhatGPT lipid generation model, assembling a million-scale lipid library and successfully breaking through international patent barriers. The company has also combined innovative molecular simulation technology to model LNP microprocesses in vitro and in vivo, and — backed by world-class experimental validation platforms — empowered the development of multi-organ-targeting nanomaterials, achieving successful real-world application of AI + nanomaterials.
In liver targeting, METiS has achieved best-in-class global performance, with delivery efficiency surpassing industry giants by over 20x. In lung targeting and other areas, the company has also achieved order-of-magnitude efficacy improvements compared to top overseas pharmaceutical firms. Beyond this, METiS has pioneered targeted delivery technologies for whole-body muscle, brain, immune organs, and tumors, successfully leading global efforts to overcome the "chokepoint" challenge of multi-organ and tissue targeting — opening the door to nucleic acid gene therapeutics for oncology, metabolic diseases, autoimmune disorders, and neurodegenerative conditions.
Leveraging its self-developed technology platforms, METiS has built multiple R&D pipelines spanning small molecule drugs and nucleic acid drugs (primarily mRNA), with a focus on therapeutic areas of significant unmet clinical need in China and globally, including oncology, central nervous system diseases, and liver diseases.
Its most advanced small molecule pipeline entered Phase III clinical trials in June 2023, while its mRNA immunotherapy pipeline is expected to enter the clinic this year. This marks the company's successful rapid transformation and upgrade from a technology platform to a product platform, validating the R&D capabilities of METiS's AI-driven drug delivery platform.
This Series C financing will further accelerate METiS's R&D progress and strengthen its competitiveness in AI-driven drug discovery. The company will use the proceeds to continue building its team and advance more innovative drugs toward clinical development.
Beyond internal R&D, METiS actively pursues external partnerships, driving growth through a dual "independent R&D + co-development" model. Through co-development deals and technology platform licensing, the company has established deep collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies globally, with its platform's development speed and success rate gaining industry recognition. Through these close partnerships, METiS aims to achieve technological breakthroughs and commercial applications worldwide, contributing more broadly to pharmaceutical industry advancement.
Dr. Caida Lai, Co-founder and CEO of METiS Pharmaceuticals, said: "We are honored to have the support of this funding round, which will provide powerful momentum for METiS's further development in AI-driven drug discovery. We recognize that the next two to three years will be a critical period for the industry — the world is accelerating nanodelivery material development, and major pharmaceutical companies are actively seeking long-term drug delivery partners. We remain firmly committed to advancing 'AI + drug delivery' technology, with the ambition to become the SpaceX of the pharmaceutical industry — designing world-class nanorockets to solve the industry's most challenging technical problems. At the same time, we look forward to working with excellent pharmaceutical companies to build China's nucleic acid drug ecosystem and bring more innovative medicines to the clinic."
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