AQEMIA Reaches $100 Million in Funding, Plans Expansion and Prepares for Clinical Trials

AQEMIA, a techbio company teaching atomic scale physics to a generative AI, has announced reaching $100 million in cumulative funding. The milestone coincides with plans for global expansion, starting with a new office in London, UK, set to open in January 2025.

This funding milestone was achieved through a $38 million round led by Cathay Innovation, with participation from existing investors Wendel, Bpifrance Large Venture, Eurazeo, and Elaia. The funds will support AQEMIA’s preparation for clinical trials, further development of its proprietary technology platform, and continued global recruitment efforts.

Technology and Advancing Oncology Programs

AQEMIA’s in-house pipeline includes three advanced preclinical oncology programs targeting head and neck, thoracic, and blood cancers. These programs are preparing to enter in vivo efficacy testing, with clinical trials anticipated to begin by late 2025 or early 2026. Additionally, AQEMIA has collaborated with Sanofi since late 2023 in a $140 million partnership to explore new applications of its platform technology.

The company’s core innovation lies in using generative AI powered by theoretical physics to design novel molecules atom by atom. Unlike traditional AI methods, which depend on large experimental datasets, AQEMIA’s platform generates molecules using precise physics computations. This approach provides the following advantages:

• Data independence: The platform overcomes data scarcity, a critical challenge in drug discovery for less-explored diseases, by directly simulating molecular behavior.
• Efficiency: It achieves high computational efficiency without requiring supercomputers, enabling the evaluation of hundreds of millions of molecules per iteration.
• Innovation: The model explores entirely new molecular designs beyond existing structures, increasing the likelihood of identifying effective treatments.

Strategic Expansion to London

The opening of AQEMIA’s London office in King’s Cross will provide access to the UK’s biotech sectors, alongside its extensive talent pool in life sciences and AI. This move supports AQEMIA’s broader global expansion goals, which include strengthening collaborations and scaling operations in key markets such as the US and Asia.

Aqemia founders - CEO Maximilien Levesque and COO Emmanuelle Martiano

Maximilien Levesque, PhD, CEO and co-founder of AQEMIA, said:

“This funding milestone and our London expansion mark an important step forward in our mission to accelerate the discovery of innovative medicines. Our focus on integrating physics and AI allows us to address critical challenges in drug discovery, enabling us to advance towards clinical trials and broaden our impact globally.”

Founded in 2019 as a deeptech spin-off from École normale supérieure, AQEMIA has rapidly grown into a team of over 50 members. The company has built strong collaborations with large pharmaceutical companies and developed an internal drug discovery pipeline that spans multiple projects, from hit generation to in vivo assays. AQEMIA’s long-term vision includes scaling its pipeline to dozens of wholly or partly owned drug candidates.

Topics: Startups & Deals