SUZHOU & SHANGHAI & NEW YORK– TandemAI, a technology company focused on transforming drug discovery infrastructure, today announced it has raised $35 million in a Series A financing to expand its drug discovery service platform that integrates breakthrough computational tools with wet lab biophysics, medicinal chemistry, and biology. Qiming Venture Partners led the financing along with participation from OrbiMed, Eight Roads Ventures, and F Prime Capital.
“Innovations continue to emerge in the space of AI drug discovery, and TandemAI is working to address the significant barriers to both accessing the most advanced computational tools and integrating them with biological and chemistry expertise,” said Kan Chen, Partner at Qiming Venture Partners. “The rapid growth of TandemAI’s client base since its founding 15 months ago reflects that interest and the potential value the company’s approach brings to accelerating drug discovery.” In connection with the financing, Kan Chen will join the TandemAI board of directors.
“TandemAI has developed a compelling vision for drug discovery that leverages both best-in-class experimental and computational technologies,” said Jarlon Tsang, Managing Partner and Head of China for Eight Roads. “Significantly, their integrated approach streamlines the discovery workflow and enables access to state-of-the-art computational tools for biotechnology companies at any stage and any scale. They have assembled a world-class team that is executing on that vision.”
“TandemAI’s potential to positively impact outcomes for pre-clinical therapeutic candidates could be game changing in both the U.S. and China biotech ecosystems,” said Chong Xu, Ph.D., F-Prime Capital Partner. “Now drug hunters can potentially achieve both speed and capital efficiency through TandemAI’s integrated offering.”
“The financing is a strong endorsement of our strategy, value proposition, and the progress we have made to date,” said Jeff He, MBA, co-founder and CEO of TandemAI. “The funds will allow us to increase our wet lab capacity to over 500 chemists and biologists and continue the development of our world class computational tools to service the expanding biotech client base in the U.S. and China.” He noted the company’s client base currently includes about 50 companies.
TandemAI was established in late 2021 with a mission to lower the barrier to entry to the most advanced tools in drug discovery, including physics-based molecular simulation, artificial intelligence, and access to high performance computing infrastructure. The company’s fully integrated pre-clinical drug discovery platform is designed to empower researchers to discover better therapeutic candidates faster and more efficiently by democratizing access to the most innovative tools in drug discovery. The goal is to dramatically improve the success rate of pre-clinical therapeutic candidates and, ultimately, help improve the lives of people waiting for new treatment options.
