Aqemia, founded in 2019 and headquartered in Paris, is building one of Europe's most distinctive AI drug-discovery platforms by combining quantum-inspired statistical mechanics with deep generative artificial intelligence. The company's central thesis is that accurate, physics-based affinity prediction can free drug discovery from its dependence on slow and expensive experimental screening data.
At the core of Aqemia's technology is a proprietary statistical-mechanics engine, rooted in quantum and theoretical physics, that estimates how strongly a candidate molecule will bind to a biological target. Because these predictions are derived from first principles rather than learned only from limited experimental datasets, the platform can score molecules it has never seen before. Aqemia pairs this physics engine with generative AI that designs entirely new chemical structures, creating a self-reinforcing loop in which the AI proposes molecules, the physics engine evaluates them, and the results feed back to improve the next generation of designs.
This approach lets Aqemia explore vast regions of chemical space quickly and at low cost, generating and ranking billions of candidate molecules computationally. The company applies the platform to its own internal pipeline, with a strong focus on oncology, where it has reported preclinical successes including in vivo results progressing toward clinical trials. It also partners with major pharmaceutical companies, including a multi-hundred-million-dollar collaboration with Sanofi.
Aqemia's funding reflects strong investor conviction. After raising a 60 million euro Series A led by Wendel Growth with Bpifrance Large Venture, Eurazeo, and Elaia, the company added a 38 million dollar round led by Cathay Innovation in December 2024, bringing total funding past 100 million dollars. The capital supports the company's push toward clinical trials and its global expansion, including the opening of a London office in King's Cross. By marrying theoretical physics with modern generative models, Aqemia aims to make drug discovery dramatically faster, cheaper, and more data-efficient.