Glasgow-based digital chemistry firm Chemify has raised £89.9 million in a new funding round backed by Scottish Enterprise and the UK Government.
Founded in 2019 by Professor Lee Cronin, the University of Glasgow spinout plans to create 300 new jobs and accelerate its plans to bring artificial intelligence powered ‘chemputation’ to global medicines manufacturing.
Chemify had initial backing from Innovate UK’s Innovation Accelerator programme and is pioneering the way new medicines and advanced materials are discovered, and has developed technology fusing robotics and AI which automates the design, manufacture and testing of new chemical compounds, helping accelerate innovation across pharmaceutical and advanced materials industries with the potential to help researchers develop new treatments and advanced materials more quickly and at lower cost.
As part of Chemify’s expansion project, the company will establish its new global headquarters and research and development centre at the University of Glasgow’s Health Innovation Hub in Govan, part of the Glasgow Riverside Innovation District.
Adrian Gillespie, CEO of Scottish Enterprise, said: “Chemify’s investment is a powerful vote of confidence in Scotland as a place to scale innovative deep-tech businesses. It will accelerate the company’s growth and create exciting opportunities across chemistry, advanced manufacturing and life sciences sectors.
“Having supported Chemify since 2023, I’m excited to see Lee and his team continue to choose Scotland for their expansion. It underlines the strength of Scotland’s innovation environment and the calibre of companies growing here.
“By backing ambitious, scaling businesses like Chemify, we’re helping world-leading Scottish science make a bigger impact globally.”
The project will also establish Chemify as the first ‘chemistry hyperscaler’, increasing its capacity to rapidly design and make new compounds for partners, scale its technology globally and create opportunities across Scotland’s life sciences, advanced manufacturing and technology sectors.
The expansion will increase Chemify’s Scottish workforce from 152 employees to around 450 over the next three years, creating up to 300 highly skilled jobs and safeguarding a further 100 jobs.
Professor Lee Cronin, founder and CEO of Chemify, said, “Just one year ago, our first Chemifarm in Glasgow proved that Chemputation works by grounding AI-enabled drug discovery in physical synthesis and improving the design and makeability of new molecules and materials.
“The additional funding will enable us to hyperscale chemistry, expand our next-generation Chemifarm and advance our Chemify Genesis system to vastly increase our capacity to create new molecules, materials and medicines and bespoke datasets.”
Economy Secretary Stephen Flynn said: “By supporting pioneering companies such as Chemify, we are reinforcing Scotland’s position at the forefront of scientific discovery and next generation technologies, while helping deliver the ambitions set out in our Life Sciences Strategy, including growing the sector’s contribution to £25 billion by 2035.”