5Y News | Helixon Therapeutics Closes $787 Million Financing Round, Setting New 2026 Biotech Fundraising Record
DeepSeek, regarded as a biotech company.
Earendil Labs (华深智药) recently closed a $787 million financing round, led by Dimension Capital alongside DST Global and Hillhouse, with additional participation from INCE Capital, Luminous Ventures, Miracle Capital, Sanofi, and the Biotech Development Fund jointly established by Hillhouse and Pfizer, as well as other investors from the technology and healthcare sectors. The proceeds will accelerate the development of Earendil's AI-driven R&D platform, expand its interdisciplinary research team, and advance multiple drug development pipelines aimed at delivering first-in-class and best-in-class therapies for patients with serious diseases.
Earendil Labs applies AI technology to redesign every stage of drug discovery — from identification, design, and manufacturing to clinical development.
The company's AI-native platform has generated more than 40 R&D programs, with 19 active projects listed on its website. Several of these target high-interest biological targets, such as the DLL3 protein in lung cancer and the TL1A protein in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The modalities span innovative formats including bispecific antibodies, T-cell engagers, and dual-targeting antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). Multiple assets in the pipeline are entering or have already entered clinical stages, with rapid expansion in autoimmune and oncology indications, while actively exploring multi-specific, multivalent, and next-generation therapeutic modalities.
"AI is at the core of everything we do — not merely a research tool, but a production engine driving the development of real therapeutic solutions," said Dr. Jian Peng, Founder and CEO of Earendil Labs. "This financing will enable us to operate at an entirely new scale, advance multiple programs into the clinic, and build a research organization with lasting impact."
Dr. Zhenping Zhu, Co-founder, President, and Co-CEO of Earendil Labs, added: "Our ultimate focus is on patients who still lack effective treatment options. This funding will significantly strengthen our ability to translate AI innovations into potentially transformative medicines, and create opportunities to collaborate with global leaders to accelerate development."
Over the past two years, the efficiency and execution capability of the company's platform have been further validated through its strategic partnership with Sanofi. In 2025, Earendil announced a global exclusive licensing agreement with Sanofi for next-generation bispecific antibodies HXN-1002 and HXN-1003 for autoimmune and inflammatory bowel disease indications, with upfront and development and commercial milestone payments totaling $1.845 billion. More recently, Earendil announced a broader strategic collaboration with Sanofi to apply its AI-driven discovery platform to multiple autoimmune and inflammatory disease programs, with a potential total deal value of up to $2.56 billion. To date, the company's cumulative licensing and collaboration agreements with Sanofi have exceeded $4.4 billion.
Shi Yunfeng, an investor at 5Y Capital, commented: "AI in the digital world is already the fastest-growing market in commercial history, but AI's impact on the physical world may be even more profound. Earendil Labs represents one of 5Y Capital's most committed bets in the AI for Science direction. Under Dr. Jian Peng's leadership, the team has the highest talent density I've seen at the intersection of AI and life sciences. More importantly, they have built a highly efficient closed loop where algorithms and experiments continuously validate each other."
"What distinguishes Earendil Labs is its ability to translate AI innovation into genuinely scalable R&D execution," said Zavain Dar, Founding Managing Partner of Dimension Capital. "The team has demonstrated that AI can consistently generate high-quality biologics programs and advance them to clinical stages. We are excited to support Earendil in defining a new paradigm for biologics discovery and development."
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