Insilico Medicine Inc. is considering an initial public offering after securing funding at a valuation of more than $1 billion, reflecting growing interest in the potential use of AI to discover ground-breaking new drugs.

US-based Insilico, which has extensive operations in China, secured $110 million in a financing round led by Value Partners Group. Existing backers including Warburg Pincus, US biotech investor OrbiMed Advisors Llc and the venture arm of Eli Lilly & Co. participated, the company said in a statement.

Investor interest in generative AI startups has soared around the region since the emergence of China’s DeepSeek demonstrated advances made outside the US, the Series E funding took Insilico’s valuation to well above $1 billion.

Insilico, which earns revenue from licensing assets in its pipeline to clients such as Fosun Pharma and Exelixis Inc., is considering an eventual listing but is no hurry to do so, Zhavoronkov said over a Zoom call, speaking from the US. It’s also struck agreements on drug discovery with Sanofi SA, Saudi Aramco Oil and others, with a contract value in aggregate of about $3.5 billion on which the company receives certain payments and royalty fees.

Source: FINANCE.YAHOO