Source Code Capital portfolio company METiS Pharmaceuticals announced the completion of angel+ and Pre-A funding rounds totaling over 100 million yuan, with existing investor Source Code Capital continuing to increase its stake.
It was the first to propose building an AI-driven formulation development platform, jointly advancing new formulation drugs to clinical trials.
On December 3, METiS Pharmaceuticals (Hangzhou METiS Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd., hereinafter referred to as "METiS") officially announced the completion of over RMB 100 million in angel+ and Pre-A funding rounds. The angel+ round was led by HSG, with FreeS Fund, Source Code Capital, XtalPi, and Forcefield Venture participating as co-investors. The Pre-A round was led by Lightspeed China Partners, with 5Y Capital joining, and existing shareholders continuing to increase their stakes. China Renaissance served as the exclusive financial advisor for both rounds. Source Code Capital was an angel-round investor and continued to increase its investment in the angel+ and Pre-A rounds.
This financing is a milestone. Following the raise, the company will continue to advance the development of its AI formulation platform and expand partnerships with pharmaceutical companies to jointly push formulation-based new drugs toward clinical trials.
METiS was founded in 2017 by MIT scientists including Caida Lai, Hongming Chen, and Wenshou Wang, alongside members of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. It is the world's first startup to use artificial intelligence to drive "pharmaceutical formulation optimization," dedicated to improving the efficiency of new drug development and creating low-risk, high-value formulation-based new drugs.
The core of new drug development is "molecule + formulation" — drugs must be formulated into appropriate dosage forms for clinical use. This is because a drug's efficacy depends not only on its chemical structure but also on how its absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion are affected by the formulation. An inappropriate formulation choice or poorly designed formulation can impact physicochemical and biological properties such as appearance, stability, and dissolution, reducing clinical safety and efficacy. Currently, 90% of new drugs in development face pharmacokinetic instability issues, which invisibly increase development costs and commercialization risks. This is especially true for biologic drugs and therapies, where the lack of customized, precision formulation forms or delivery solutions often means compromised precision and efficacy of biologic drug delivery, unguaranteed safety, and failure to achieve precision medication and treatment goals.
METiS was the first to propose building an AI-driven formulation development platform, deeply integrating artificial intelligence with high-throughput formulation development technology. This enables faster, more intelligent generation of more rational formulation design paradigms, richer and more diverse formulation forms, and more optimized formulation prescriptions — effectively breaking through the pain points of traditional formulation development, which relies heavily on expert experience and trial-and-error methods to find optimal solutions.
To date, METiS has established its domestic laboratory and attracted numerous talents with drug development and AI simulation experience from both China and abroad, continuously strengthening and expanding its R&D team. Additionally, METiS has reached strategic cooperation agreements with multiple well-known pharmaceutical companies, engaging in multi-dimensional close collaboration on co-developing differentiated formulation-based new drugs.
Caida Lai, Co-founder and CEO of METiS, stated: "On one hand, given the broader environment where drug R&D efficiency is under pressure and the value of generic drugs is being significantly compressed, the pharmaceutical industry faces declining returns on new drug R&D and urgently needs more efficient drug innovation. On the other hand, substantial clinical needs remain unmet, and many novel drug modalities face significant formulation challenges. In recent years, artificial intelligence has achieved key breakthroughs across numerous fields — for example, AlphaFold solved the long-standing problem of protein molecular folding. METiS is focused on building new infrastructure for AI in drug delivery R&D, establishing key capabilities in AI algorithms, molecular simulation, mathematical modeling, and high-throughput experimentation. Through collaboration with global pharmaceutical companies, we are exploring and validating our platform's value while actively working with partners to advance clinically differentiated improved new drugs."
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