Biotech startup XtalPi closes $46 million in Series B-1 extension to boost growth and accelerate platform development

Computation-driven biotech startup XtalPi continues to reinvent the pharmaceutical industry’s approach to drug research and development with its Intelligent Digital Drug Discovery and Development (ID4) platform. We covered the 4-year old startup back in January when it raised $15 million in Series B funding from Sequoia China, Google and Tencent.

Today, the company announced it has closed  has closed $46 million in Series B-1 extension financing to support its continuous market growth and expand application of its technology into new areas of pharmaceutical research. The new investment was led by China Life Healthcare Fund with participation from SIG and Yael Capital. The financing extension will add to the original Series B round of $15 million closed in January 2018 backed by Sequoia China, Google, and Tencent, and bring XtalPi’s total fund raised to over $66 million.

Founded in 2014 by a group of quantum physicists at MIT, XtalPi has since built an elite team with multi-disciplinary expertise in physics, chemistry, pharmaceutical R&D, and algorithm design. XtalPi’s cutting-edge technologies, innovative solutions, and diverse applications across the pharmaceutical value chain have helped it gain industry approval and establish strategic partnerships with top international pharmaceutical companies.

XtalPi  is building on current momentum and success. It plans to also use the new financing to fuel the development of XtalPi’s AI applications for critical steps of drug research and development (R&D), with an immediate focus on algorithmic tools that expand the searchable chemical space in drug discovery, achieve accurate predictions of key drug properties, and help further accelerate and optimize later stages of drug development. In addition, XtalPi is poised to upgrade its Intelligent Digital Drug Discovery and Development (ID4) platform with industry-leading cloud computing power and data security in order to offer highly customized solutions to meet the particular needs of pharmaceutical companies.

“XtalPi has gained approval and endorsement from pharmaceutical clients as we continue to help them cut cost, time, and risk in pharmaceutical research,” said Shuhao Wen, Co-founder and Chairman of the Board at XtalPi. “For the next step, we want to open our base solution platform to support other developers of drug research and development algorithms. Through this, we will help global pharmaceutical companies connect with a wide range of the latest AI research tools in an easily accessible way, and thereby further improve the efficiency of drug discovery and development.”

With tightly interwoven quantum physics, artificial intelligence, and high-performance cloud computing algorithms, XtalPi’s ID4 platform provides accurate predictions on the physiochemical and pharmaceutical properties of small-molecule candidates for drug design, solid-form selection, and other critical aspects of drug development. XtalPi is dedicated to improving the efficiency, accuracy, and success rate of drug research and development, and contributing to a healthier society worldwide.

XtalPi ID4’s platform improves the efficiency, accuracy, and success rate of drug design, solid-form drug selection, and other critical aspects of preclinical drug development. In combining artificial intelligence, quantum physics, and high-performance cloud computing, XtalPi can quickly and accurately predict many important characteristics of small-molecule drugs and solid forms, thereby providing time-saving insights into the safety, stability, and efficacy of drug candidates. The startup also has partnerships with top global pharmaceutical companies and research organizations and looks forward to expanding industry collaborations with both existing and new partners.