Aqemia Raises €30M to Scale its Deep Physics and AI Enabled Drug Discovery Pipeline

Rhea-AI Summary

Aqemia has successfully raised €30 million in a Series A funding round, co-led by Eurazeo and Bpifrance. This capital will enhance its drug discovery platform, focusing on oncology and immuno-oncology. Over three years, the company has expanded from a spin-off to a team of 50, collaborating with major pharmaceutical firms like Sanofi and Janssen. Their unique AI technology enables rapid generation of drug candidates while significantly reducing costs and time. The funding reflects confidence in Aqemia's ability to innovate drug discovery through advanced computational methods.

Positive

• Raised €30 million in Series A funding for scaling drug discovery.
• Collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies worth millions.
• Innovative AI technology allows for rapid drug candidate generation 10,000x faster than competitors.

Negative

• None.

• Aqemia leverages its unique Deep Physics-powered AI to uncover breakthrough drug candidates at scale.
• The €30 million Series A funding round was co-led by Eurazeo and Bpifrance, through its Large Venture fund.
• This capital will be used to scale Aqemia’s proprietary drug discovery platform and its proprietary therapeutic assets pipeline, with a first emphasis on oncology and immuno-oncology.

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Aqemia raises €30 million in a Series A funding round led by Eurazeo and Bpifrance through its Large Venture fund, with the participation of Elaia its historic investor. This financing will further support Aqemia’s core mission: to massively scale drug discovery, through a first-in-class technological platform combining quantum-inspired physics and machine learning.

In three years, Aqemia has grown from a spin-off of Ecole Normale Superieure to an A-team of 50 people at the crossroads of Chemistry and Artificial Intelligence, and has built its innovation engine - Aqemia’s Launchpad.

The Launchpad has proven successful in several disclosed and undisclosed collaborations worth up to millions of euros with leading pharmaceutical companies such as Sanofi, Janssen and Servier.

This unique technology has already resulted in the launch of a proprietary pipeline of several drug discovery projects, which now range from in vitro to in vivo phases, especially in oncology and immuno-oncology.

“After repeated successes in generating very efficiently innovative new chemical matter in collaboration with large pharmaceutical companies around the world, we are now excited to leverage this fundraising to accelerate towards Aqemia’s mission: build a massive pipeline of wholly-owned drug discovery projects.”, said Maximilien Levesque, Co-founder and CEO of Aqemia.

Unlike AI-based platforms that need experimental data to train on, Aqemia addresses drug discovery projects from their earliest stage by generating its own data using unique quantum physics algorithms derived from 12 years of research at univ. Cambridge and Oxford (UK), and École Normale Supérieure and CNRS.

“The unprecedented pace – a whopping 10,000x faster while maintaining costs - and accuracy of our deep physics algorithms, adding up to our generative AI, creates a unique combination that permits to generate innovative new drug candidates more quickly, and scale drug discovery projects as technology projects.” continued Emmanuelle Martiano, Co-Founder & COO of Aqemia. “We are continuously recruiting to address our next technology and drug discovery challenges”, she added.

Aqemia's ambition is to optimize and accelerate early drug discovery projects on a massive scale in order to uncover dozens of proprietary new drug candidates. Those candidates will fuel a diversified therapeutic pipeline across a variety of targets and indications that Aqemia intends to advance into clinical trials alone through a constellation of Biotech spin-offs or with partners as the case may be.

“We are thrilled to welcome Eurazeo and Bpifrance’s Large Venture fund onboard, as they are known for investing in the finest French scale-ups, and to receive again backing from Elaia, the first French Deeptech VC investor” said Maximilien.

When asked about this investment, Antoine Zins, Investment Director at Eurazeo, stated:

"I strongly believe that Aqemia has unparalleled power to shift the drug discovery paradigm. They have not only solved the missing data paradox in the discovery process with deep physics and AI, they can also generate leads at a faster pace than any discovery platform before them. We are very excited to be part of the adventure by their side”.

Laurent Higueret, Senior Investment Director at Bpifrance’s Large Venture fund, added:

"Early drug discovery is a long, costly and cumbersome process with often unsatisfactory outcomes for sponsors and ultimately patients. Aqemia’s ambition is to change all that by bringing together deep physics and AI into a powerful computational engine that has the potential to generate promising new development candidates at scale. Through this investment, we are thrilled to be part of this exciting journey and further expand Bpifrance portfolio in deeptech and AI.”

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About Aqemia

Aqemia is a next-gen pharmatech company generating one of the world's fastest-growing drug discovery pipeline. Our mission is to design fast innovative drug candidates for dozens of critical diseases. What sets us apart is our unique quantum and statistical mechanics algorithms fueling a generative AI to design novel drug candidates. The disruptive speed and accuracy of our technology platform allows us to scale drug discovery projects as technology projects.

For more information visit us on www.aqemia.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

About Eurazeo

Eurazeo is a leading global investment company, with a diversified portfolio of €32.5 billion in assets under management, including nearly €23.4 billion from third parties, invested in 530 companies. With its considerable private equity, venture capital, private debt as well as real estate and infrastructure asset expertise, Eurazeo accompanies companies of all sizes, supporting their development through the commitment of its nearly 360 professionals and by offering deep sector expertise, a gateway to global markets, and a responsible and stable

foothold for transformational growth. Its solid institutional and family shareholder base, robust financial structure free of structural debt, and flexible investment horizon enable Eurazeo to support its companies over the long term. Eurazeo has offices in Paris, New York, London, Frankfurt, Berlin, Milan, Madrid, Luxembourg, Shanghai, Seoul, Singapore and Sao Paulo. Eurazeo is listed on Euronext Paris.

About Bpifrance and the Large Venture fund

Bpifrance's equity investments are carried out by Bpifrance Investissement. Bpifrance finances companies - at every stage of their development - in credit, collateral and equity. Bpifrance supports them in their innovation projects and internationally. Bpifrance also ensures their export activity through a wide range of products. Consulting, university, networking and acceleration programs for start-ups, SMEs and ETIs are also part of the offer proposed to entrepreneurs. Thanks to Bpifrance and its 50 regional offices, entrepreneurs benefit from a close, unique and efficient contact to help them face their challenges.

Large Venture – the growth equity arm of Bpifrance – is a €1.75 billion fund dedicated to fast-growing, highly innovative startups looking to accelerate organic or external growth. Large Venture has already invested in more than 60 companies in Healthtech and life sciences, digital as well as Greentech, since its creation in 2013.

More information on: www.Bpifrance.fr - Follow us on Twitter : @Bpifrance - @BpifrancePresse

About Elaia

Elaia is a European top-tier VC firm with a strong tech DNA. We back tech disruptors with global ambition from early stage to growth development. For the past 20 years, our commitment has been to deliver high performance with values.

We are proud to have been an active partner in over 100 startups including success stories such as Criteo (Nasdaq), Orchestra Networks (acquired by Tibco), Volterra (acquired by F5), Mirakl (valued $3.5B in Series E) and Shift Technology (valued $1B+ in Series D).

Learn more http://www.elaia.com • @Elaia_Partners

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221019005005/en/

Press contacts

Aqemia

Maximilien Levesque, CEO - maximilien.levesque@aqemia.com - +336 86 47 05 69

Bpifrance

Sophie Santandrea - sophie.santandrea@bpifrance.fr - +331 45 65 51 62

Elaia

Louisa Mesnard - lmesnard@elaia.fr - +336 50 88 13 04

Source: Aqemia

FAQ

What is the purpose of Aqemia's €30 million funding round?

The funding aims to scale Aqemia's drug discovery platform, with a focus on oncology and immuno-oncology.

Who co-led Aqemia's Series A funding round?

The Series A funding round was co-led by Eurazeo and Bpifrance.

What technology does Aqemia use for drug discovery?

Aqemia leverages unique Deep Physics-powered AI to uncover breakthrough drug candidates.

Which pharmaceutical companies have collaborated with Aqemia?

Aqemia has worked with major pharmaceutical companies, including Sanofi and Janssen.

What are Aqemia's plans for the funding received?

Aqemia plans to use the funding to optimize and accelerate its early drug discovery projects.