AI+RNA startup ReviR Creek Rock Technology received tens of millions of dollars in Pre-A round of funding

On January 17, 2022, AI+RNA startup RevivA Therapeutics (ReviR Technology, hereinafter referred to as ReviR) announced that after the angel round of financing by Wuyuan Capital and CDH VGC in May 2021, it completed the Pre-A financing supported by Shunwei Capital, Yunjiu Capital and Tiantu Investment, and was over-invested by the old shareholders Wuyuan Capital and CDH VGC, with a total financing amount of tens of millions of US dollars.

It is reported that this round of funds will be used to continue to promote the evaluation and verification of ReviR's voyageRTM AI technology platform. By combining machine learning with advanced RNA biology research and development techniques, ReviR will further accelerate the screening and development of its candidate compounds, laying the foundation for a wide range of clinical applications.

Founded in May 2021, ReviR is dedicated to driving RNA-targeting drug development efforts with AI algorithms and genetic technologies to address long-unmet clinical needs such as tumors, infections and rare diseases.

In recent years, due to the unique advantages and broad prospects in the research of "non-drugable" targets, the research and development technology of small molecule drugs targeting RNA has attracted much attention from pharmaceutical companies. The development of hypermolar law in high-throughput nucleic acid sequencing technology has made it easier to digitize RNA than proteins.

ReviR and its core technical team focus on the calculation of RNA spatial structure, analyze the structure of RNA through algorithms and large-scale sequencing, and develop small molecule drugs to bind the "pocket" in the RNA structure, that is, its active site, to block mechanisms such as shear translation, achieve the purpose of treating diseases, and achieve breakthroughs in "non-druggable" targets at the protein level.

Dr. Yang Li, Co-Founder and Chairman of ReviR, said: "AI, RNA biology and high-throughput drug screening technology have made rapid breakthroughs in recent years, and ReviR brings together cutting-edge talents from three directions to develop innovative drugs for unsolved clinical needs. Less than a year after its establishment, reviR Silicon Valley and Shenzhen teams have developed rapidly, and we are very grateful to investors for their optimism about the ai+RNA direction and recognition of the team. ”

Jing Xutian, Managing Director of Wuyuan Capital, said: "With the integration of sequencing technology and information technology, the search for new targets and the discovery of a new class of drugs are becoming mathematical physics problems that can be engineered to a certain extent, combined with the assistance of high-throughput experimental tools, it is expected to get rid of the paradigm that required a lot of long-term basic life science research in the past. RNA targets are a huge untapped treasure trove, and today we just have the systematic tooling capabilities to decode and apply them, and it is believed that ReviR's team experience and technical capabilities can make outstanding contributions to the development of new drugs in this blue ocean opportunity. ”

Dr. Dan Liu, Partner of CDH VGC, said: "We have long been optimistic about the underlying technological innovation and application, and the AI computing platform represented by Revivr has achieved global leadership in small molecule RNA-targeted drugs. The digital development of bio-innovative drugs will not only help to break through the existing dilemmas of the industry, but also promote the transformation of the entire biomedicine and expand new ideas including RNA drug design. The ReviR team has a deep accumulation in the intersection of RNA and AI, and will become China's leader in the new field direction of AI designing small molecules to target RNA. ”

Wu Wentao, Vice President of Shunwei Capital, said: "Shunwei Capital has long been concerned about the opportunities brought by the integration and innovation of digital technology and pharmaceutical technology to the development of the medical industry.

As a rapidly emerging efficiency improvement tool in recent years, AI technology has been preliminarily proven in shortening the drug development cycle and improving the quality of drug development; RNA-targeted drug technology has shown great development potential and clinical value after years of technology accumulation and industrial practice.

We are bullish on the great promise of AI-driven RNA-targeted drug development. The ReviR team has a deep industry-university-research background and unique insights in the field of drug research and development and AI technology, and has built an algorithm + wet experiment platform that can efficiently interact and iterate and quickly produce high-quality data, which has extremely high technical barriers and drug discovery efficiency. We are excited to support the rapid development of ReviR and look forward to the company's AI-driven RNA-targeted drug development platform to bring more differentiated and innovative drugs to the medical market with huge unmet clinical needs, benefiting Patients in China and around the world at an early date." ”

Cao Darong, founding partner of Yunjiu Capital, said: "The empowerment of AI technology in the field of scientific research is the innovation theme that Yunjiu Capital has long focused on. Theoretically, RNA-targeted drug discovery has broader potential than protein-level drug discovery, helping to deliver quantitative to qualitative changes in drug discovery, bringing new solutions to the treatment of cancer and rare diseases. But correspondingly, the RNA level research challenges are also greater, and the combination of AI applications can help establish an efficient screening and new drug discovery technology platform. The team of Yue Peng and Dr. Li Yang has rich experience in the field of pharmaceutical and bioinformatics, and it is expected that ReviR will build core technical barriers as soon as possible under their leadership and promote more transformation of achievements that benefit patients. ”

Wei Guoxing, partner of Tiantu Investment, said: "We are very happy to participate in this round of financing for ReviR, we are very optimistic about the in-depth application of AI in the field of innovative drugs, and we are also pleased to see that ReviR can break new ground in the selection of drug targets. We firmly believe that Revivr will become a leading enterprise in the research and development of small molecule drugs targeting RNA in China, and Tiantu Investment will continue to support the company to promote the subsequent platform construction and pipeline layout." ”

About ReviR

ReviR Therapeutics is an innovative drug R&D company driven by artificial intelligence algorithms and gene technology, focusing on the spatial structure calculation of RNA, creating a voyageRTM AI platform to develop small molecule drugs targeting RNA, solving long-unmet clinical needs such as tumors, infections and rare diseases. Founded in Silicon Valley and Shenzhen in 2021, ReviR has a core team of multinational pharmaceutical companies and world-renowned medical research centers, and has been engaged in drug development, computational chemistry and computational biology for nearly 20 years in Genentech, Gilead, AbbVie, 23andMe and Invitae.

About Five Source Capital

Wuyuan Capital currently manages approximately RMB32 billion usd and RMB dual currency funds. Wuyuan Capital seeks, supports and inspires lonely entrepreneurs to provide them with support from spirit to all business operations. We believe that if you start to be believed in the eyes of others, the world will be different.

Investment companies include Ctrip (NASDAQ:CTRP), Huanju Group (NASDAQ:YY), Xiaomi Group (HK:01810), Kingsoft Office (Sci-Tech Board: 688111), Agora (NASDAQ:API), Xiaopeng Motors (NYSE:XPEV), Kuaishou (HKEX:1024), WeDoctor Group, SenseTime, Horizon, Pony.ai, etc.

About CDH VGC

Founded in 2002, CDH Investments is one of the most influential alternative asset managers in China, with more than RMB170 billion under management. CDH VGC is a fund of CDH Investment that focuses on innovation and growth, mainly covering four major investment areas: medical and health, ToC consumption, ToB enterprise services and technological innovation. The core philosophy of CDH Investment is to walk with strivers and create long-term value. Over the past ten years, CDH has traveled with many outstanding enterprises in the fields of biomedicine, medical devices, medical services and Internet medical treatment, and CDH firmly believes that allocating resources to excellent medical enterprises will surely promote the progress of the industry and society.

About Shunwei Capital

Founded in 2011 by Mr. Lei Jun and Mr. Xu Dalai, Shunwei Capital currently manages over US$5 billion of dual-currency funds in US dollars and RENMINBI. The contributors are mainly from the world's top investment institutions such as sovereign funds, family funds, fund of funds and university foundations.

Shunwei Capital focuses on mobile Internet, Internet +, intelligent hardware, intelligent manufacturing, deep technology, consumption, enterprise services, electric vehicle ecology and other fields. Representative investment projects at home and abroad include: Xiaomi Group, No. 9 Company, SoundNet, iQiyi, Weilai Automobile, ShareChat, Meesho and other more than 400 outstanding enterprises. Hopefully, we can make our lives better by investing in businesses that have dreams from early to early growth.

About Cloud Nine Capital

Sky9 Capital is a leading venture capital fund focused on innovative topics in the areas of consumer, internet, hard technology, corporate services and healthcare. Composed of senior technical experts, successful entrepreneurs and investors, the team has managed a number of US dollar and RMB funds since 2011, with an asset management scale of nearly US$2 billion.

About Tiantu Investment

Founded in 2002, Tiantu Investment is one of the earliest professional institutions engaged in equity investment in China, with offices in Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, with a professional investment team of more than 50 people. Tiantu VC team was established in 2016, currently managed three VC funds, an angel fund and a US dollar fund, the cumulative management scale of more than 4 billion yuan, after 5 years of practice has formed a relatively mature investment decision-making system, investment in the early stage of more than 100 projects.