5Y News | AI Pharmaceutical Industrial Platform Hourstec Closes Nearly $10 Million Pre-A Round
5Y Capital continues to track applications of computational science in life and health sciences.
Hourstec, a company aiming to build an AI decision-making platform for pharmaceutical manufacturing, recently announced it has raised nearly $10 million in a Pre-A round led jointly by 5Y Capital and Matrix Partners China, with existing investor Linear Capital also participating. The funding will go toward expanding Hourstec's leading position in AI-enabled automated synthesis platforms. Sources indicate that Hourstec has completed three funding rounds within a single year.
Xutian Jing, Managing Director at 5Y Capital, said: "We are honored to participate as a lead investor in Hourstec's new round. 5Y Capital has been closely following the application of computational science in life sciences and healthcare. Beyond upgrading methodologies in drug discovery, Hourstec demonstrates how AI and computation can also empower chemical synthesis, process design, and scale-up manufacturing — areas with enormous market potential. The Hourstec team and its founder bring strong interdisciplinary backgrounds spanning computation and chemical engineering, and have shown exceptional ability to iterate and execute, efficiently delivering products to market and validating them through continuous commercial partnerships."
A rare player in the AI + pharmaceutical industry, Hourstec serves CROs, CMOs, and novel drug discovery companies. It has developed an intelligent synthesis pathway and process design platform for small-molecule novel drugs, offering end-to-end products from data through R&D and production, with capabilities covering laboratory work, process design, and scale-up manufacturing.
Hourstec's AI computing platform enables companies to calculate target molecule accessibility, cost, and process routes during molecular design, improving efficiency and speed. The platform replaces traditional database searches and literature reviews, while also bridging the knowledge gap between medicinal chemists and process chemists that has long plagued conventional approaches. Using Hourstec's AI platform, medicinal chemistry and process chemistry teams can collaborate more effectively, rapidly designing chemical reaction routes best suited for process scale-up, as well as final process route designs.
As an early leader in AI-enabled automated synthesis, Hourstec has established clear first-mover advantages, having developed a standardized product matrix on the software side that covers the full chain from laboratory to process synthesis. Through partnerships with numerous industry leaders, the company has also accumulated practical experience in actual production environments. "The Hourstec team combines core competencies in artificial intelligence, information management, systems engineering, and laboratory automation to achieve design, synthesis, and testing through AI — realizing automated target molecule synthesis and pathway discovery," said Dr. Zhuo Zeng, founder and CEO of Hourstec.
Hourstec stated that its business is accelerating, with multiple top-tier clients already entering the commercial contract implementation phase. Its next goal is to build an AI-enabled automated synthesis platform that, combined with its proprietary AI computing platform, leverages hardware integration and precise software control to replace traditional expert-dependent manual workflows with "AI design, machine synthesis" — achieving breakthroughs in synthesis automation and empowering R&D personnel to focus their strengths on more creative domains.
Hourstec's core R&D team of PhDs hails from world-renowned institutions including Carnegie Mellon University, MIT, Georgia Institute of Technology, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and University of Science and Technology of China. Founder Dr. Zhuo Zeng was named a Leading Talent of Suzhou Industrial Park.
5Y Capital (formerly Morningside Capital) currently manages approximately RMB 32 billion across USD and RMB dual-currency funds. 5Y Capital seeks out, supports, and inspires entrepreneurs who dare to stand alone, providing support that ranges from the spiritual to full operational backing. We believe that if the "crazy" person others see in you begins to be believed in, the world will become a different place.
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