(Yicai) Aug. 11 -- Aureka Biotechnologies, a Chinese artificial intelligence-native biotechnology company, has secured USD100 million in it latest fundraiser to build next-generation biological foundation models.

The Series B financing round was completed in phases, the Shanghai-based firm announced yesterday. The first phase was invested exclusively by Singaporean venture capital firm Granite Asia, while the following ones attracted several institutions, including HighLight Capital and Qiming Venture Partners.

The proceeds will be mainly used to research and train next-generation biological foundation models and upgrade the company’s experiment-centered feedback engine to strengthen the closed-loop between the models and its proprietary single-cell functional screening, high-throughput experimental validation, and drug development platforms, Aureka noted.

Founded in 2023, Aureka is dedicated to building an AI-for-Science infrastructure that integrates AI models, agents, digital biotechnology, and experimental platforms to reshape the entire drug discovery process. So far, it has raised a total of USD200 million.

The company's biological foundation model AuralDE is capable of biomolecular structure prediction and de novo molecular design, enabling the generation of real biomolecules with targeted functions in laboratory settings.

Aureka has established strategic partnerships with several leading global pharmaceutical companies to jointly advance the development of differentiated antibody drugs. Over the past two years, it has achieved commercial revenues in the tens of millions of US dollars.

Editor: Futura Costaglione