Beijing-based startup DP Technology Co. Ltd. today outlined a plan to use its artificial intelligence tools to accelerate scientific research in everything from battery design to drug development after raising 800 million yuan ($114 million) in funding.
The Series C round was led by Fortune Venture Capital and the Beijing Jingguorui Equity Investment Fund, and saw participation from the Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, Beijing Pharmaceutical and Health Industry Investment Fund, Lenovo Capital, Incubator Group and Oriza Hua.
Unlike many Chinese AI startups that have attracted multimillion funding rounds lately, DP Technology is actually something of a veteran in the industry, having been founded back in 2018 by a pair of Peking University alumni. The startup is carving out a path in what it calls the “AI for science” industry, having developed various tools powered by large language models to accelerate research in areas such as molecular simulation and laboratory automation.
DP Technology’s tools span many aspects of the scientific research process, with one of its main offerings being an AI model system for simulations called Particle Universe. Other products include its laboratory operating system Uni-Lab, its cloud-based research hub Bohrium, and a computer-aided drug design platform called Hermite.
It has also built a research and development platform called RiDYMO, focused on “undruggable” biology targets; Piloteye, which is for designing batteries; SciMaster, a general-purpose scientific AI agent; and Lebesgue Intelligent Computing for controlling network traffic.
DP Technology co-founder and Chief Scientist Zhang Linfeng told the South China Morning Post that his company’s tools are being used by more than 1,000 universities and research organizations and 150 corporate clients globally, with some of its biggest including PetroChina Co. Ltd. and BYD Auto Co. Ltd. “AI for Science is more than just an emerging sector – it is a foundational infrastructure project for decades of scientific discovery to come,” Zhang insisted.
Zhang is a former winner of the ACM Gordon Bell Prize, which is often referred to as the “Nobel Prize” of supercomputing. He scooped that award in 2020 for his research into machine learning algorithms that dramatically enhance molecular dynamics simulations. He founded the company alongside Chief Executive Sun Weijie, who said that its long-term plan is to build “AI scientists” capable of automating scientific discovery.
DP Technology will use the funding to hire fresh talent that can help it to accelerate its research and build more scientific discovery tools.
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