PARIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–AQEMIA continues to grow rapidly in its effort to discover new drugs with their generative-AI fueled by deep physics. After raising €30M last year, the tech-enabled drug discovery company today announced it has received an additional €30 million investment, which brings the Series A funding round to €60 million. This investment in AQEMIA is being led by Wendel Growth and also includes commitments by the company’s long-standing partners: Bpifrance Large Venture, Eurazeo and Elaia.
This new investment follows recent successes in drug discovery projects led by AQEMIA alongside the entire drug discovery value chain, one of the clearer illustrations being the recent $140 million drug discovery deal with Sanofi.
AQEMIA will leverage this new funding to accelerate the growth of its wholly-owned pipeline of drug discovery projects and assets as well as further scale its proprietary GenAI and deep physics drug discovery platform. AQEMIA’s internal pipeline is already counting several projects being tested in animals, mostly in oncology and immuno-oncology, and the next phase of projects will cover the full spectrum of therapeutic areas.
As AQEMIA moves forward with this fundraise, it is poised to intensify its mission of reshaping the drug discovery landscape. By expanding the team with top-tier talents and pushing technological boundaries, AQEMIA reaffirms its commitment to leading the change in a new era of drug discovery innovation.
“We embark on this next chapter of our history to accelerate our drug discovery programs, to build a larger proprietary pipeline beyond our projects already tested in animals, and to shape a global organization that embraces generative AI and rigorous physics as key instruments to bring excellence in small molecule drug discovery. AQEMIA’s journey continues: We’re advancing to clinical trials.” said Maximilien Levesque, CEO and co-founder of AQEMIA.
“The technology developed by AQEMIA from fundamental research and applied to medical research is unique in the world. We are delighted to be supporting this team, led by Maximilien Levesque and Emmanuelle Martiano, in its mission to find tomorrow’s medicines faster and more effectively.” said Victoire Laurenty, Investment Director for Wendel Growth.
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. Our differentiation lies in our unique quantum and statistical mechanics algorithms fueling a generative artificial intelligence to design novel drug candidates, with already several drug discovery successes in internal pipeline as well as in collaboration with Pharma companies.
About Wendel Growth
Through Wendel Growth, Wendel invests via funds or directly in innovative, high-growth companies. Having already committed over €200 million in recent years, Wendel Growth is looking for direct investment and co-investment opportunities in start-ups. To make these direct investments, like the one made in 2019 in AlphaSense, Wendel is relying on a new team made up of two experienced professionals in this asset class. Wendel’s ambition is to invest up to €50 million per unit in scale-ups in Europe and North America. At the same time, Wendel Growth is continuing to invest in funds and funds of funds.
About Bpifrance and its Large Venture fund
Bpifrance – the French Public Investment Bank – is a one-stop-shop offering domestic companies a comprehensive range of financial products and services to support them at every stage of their development, including equity, loans, guarantees and export insurances, as well as consultancy or training.
Large Venture – the late-stage VC 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 was incepted in 2013 with the mission to bring the most promising French technologies from the lab to the market, and ultimately to profitability. Large Venture invests in private and public companies across three main sectors: healthtech and life sciences, digital and greentech.
Visit us at bpifrance.com – Bpifrance | Presse
About Eurazeo
Eurazeo is a leading European investment group with €33.5 billion in diversified assets under management, including €23 billion on behalf of institutional and private clients through its private equity, private debt, real estate and infrastructure strategies. The Group supports more than 600 mid-market companies, leveraging the commitment of its 400 employees, its sector expertise, its privileged access to global markets via 12 offices in Europe, Asia and the United States, and its responsible approach to value creation based on growth. The company’s institutional and family shareholding structure, and its solid financial structure, ensure its long-term viability.
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.
ISIN : FR0-00121121 – Bloomberg- : RF FP – Reuters : EURA.PA.
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 https://www.elaia.com • @Elaia_Partners
Contacts
Press
AQEMIA
Ingrid Delval, Chief of Staff to the CEO – ingrid.delval@aqemia.com
Eurazeo
Stéphanie Maria-Bajard, Director – Communication – smaria-bajard@eurazeo.com
Pierre Bernardin, Head of Investor Relations – pbernardin@eurazeo.com
David Sturken, H-Advisors Maitland – david.sturken@h-advisors.global
Bpifrance
Sophie Santandrea, Press Relations Manager – sophie.santandrea@bpifrance.fr
Elaia
Louisa Mesnard, Chief Marketing Officer – lmesnard@elaia.fr
