China-based drug discovery technology provider Insilico Medicine has closed a $37m series B round that included Lilly Asia Ventures and Baidu Ventures, subsidiaries of pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and internet group Baidu.
Venture capital firm Qiming Venture Partners led the round, which also featured Eight Roads Ventures, a vehicle for investment and financial services firm Fidelity International, as well as Pavilion Capital, Sinovation Ventures, Bold Capital Partners and undisclosed new and existing investors.
Founded in 2014, Insilico has created drug discovery technology that utilises artificial intelligence and machine learning to rapidly identify potential molecular targets for a range of conditions.
The series B cash will go toward commercialising Insilico’s technology, expanding its senior management team and advancing a pipeline of candidates for conditions including cancer, fibrosis and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis that can be developed with partners.
Insilico has commercial agreements in place with pharmaceutical firms and emerging biotech developers, and has also formed joint ventures exploiting its core technology. More than 70 scientific papers concerning its work have been published to date.
The company raised $6m in a June 2018 round led by pharmaceutical firm WuXi AppTec and backed by Pavilion Capital and Bold Capital. It closed $6.8m of funding in July 2017 according to securities filings, and TechCrunch reported it has secured $14m prior to the 2018 round.