Scottish Company awarded £36 Million to advance Digitisation of Chemistry

Molecular design, discovery and chemical manufacturing technology company Chemify has announced funding of £36 million including a Series A led by Triatomic Capital, joined by new investors including Hong-Kong based Horizon Ventures, US-based Rocketship Ventures, Possible Ventures, Alix Ventures, Scotland-based Eos and the UK Government Innovation Accelerator program. Existing investor BlueYard Capital also participated in the round.

A spin-out from the University of Glasgow in March last year, Chemify was founded in 2019 by CEO Lee Cronin with backing from David Cleevely (co-founder of Abcam) and is based on decades of chemistry research, robotics, AI and conceptual advancements from Cronin’s Digital Chemistry Laboratory at the University of Glasgow. With underlying technology developed at the Mazumdar-Shaw Advanced Research Centre, over £25 million has been invested in the foundational research behind Chemify, which is focused on speeding the development of new molecules as products to underpin advances in medicine, farming, materials science and green energy.

Lee Cronin said: “It has long been our dream to digitise chemistry, and I’m delighted that through this funding, Chemify is building a company that can design, make, and discover complex molecules on demand using digital blueprints on demand faster, more efficiently, and safely than is currently possible. Our mission is to deliver better molecules for pharmaceutical and industrial partners in a fraction of the time and cost currently required.” 

Secretary of State for Scotland, Alister Jack, said: "It was fascinating to visit the University of Glasgow (Aug 1st) and hear about all the excellent work they are doing. The UK Government is backing the UK science, technology, and innovation sectors with record levels of funding including £33 million towards the Glasgow City Region (GCR) Innovation Accelerator (IA).

"The new funding announced by Chemify, Ltd, which is one of the projects supported by the GCR IA, is a great example of our levelling up agenda in action with the public and private sectors working together to help unlock further funding, a clear demonstration of Scotland's vital role in keeping the UK at the forefront of global science and research."

Steve Hochberg from Triatomic Capital says: “We are excited to be leading the series A in Chemify focusing on delivering digital-chemical solutions to many partners where molecular design and manufacturing is a critical bottleneck.”

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