Chinese AI drug discovery company XtalPi has landed on the Hong Kong stock exchange after nearly $115 million ($896.13 million HKD) from an IPO.
XtalPi, which is listing under the name QuantumPharm, touts a mix of quantum physics, artificial intelligence and robotic automation in the R&D services it offers, spanning both dry and wet labs.
Its shares were priced at $5.28 HKD, the lower end of the expected range. But the listing — the first to take place under a new pathway for specialist technology companies — is a welcome win for a stock market that’s been beleaguered by both the flight of international investors and heightened US-China tensions.
Founded in 2015 by three physicists trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, XtalPi has sites in Boston as well as Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing. Over the years, it scored partnerships with domestic giants as well as major multinational drugmakers including Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Merck KGaA and, more recently, Eli Lilly.
In total, the company counts more than 100 biotechs, pharma companies and research institutions as its customers, it wrote in a filing. It’s also incubated and invested in startups developing new drugs.
“Our short-term commercialization plan is to invest more efforts and resources to expand our business globally, particularly in the U.S. and Europe, while maintain our established business in China,” its IPO documents read.
Tencent, Mirae Asset, Google, China Life and HongShan (previously the China arm of Sequoia) are among the big-name backers.
Cornerstone investors in the IPO include various funds based in Hong Kong and mainland China, with the notable exception of Bradley Lether Pentelute — a professor of chemistry at MIT — according to a filing.