Hong Kong-based Insilico Medicine, which uses machine learning to identify potential drug targets, raised $35M from Prosperity7, bringing its Series D to $95M
Rita Liao / TechCrunch :
Context & Ripple Effects
This $35M Prosperity7 check closed out Insilico Medicine's Series D at $95M — a mid-stage moment in what became a steady climb: a $110M Series E led by Value Partners at a $1B+ valuation followed in early 2025, then a Hong Kong IPO that raised $293M and opened 45% above its offer price.
The raise also landed in a category where machine-learning drug discovery was already drawing nine-figure private capital — insitro had pulled in a $143M Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz the same season — making target-identification AI one of the better-funded corners of biotech.
First-order effects
- Insilico gains an extended Series D war chest to push its machine-learning-identified drug targets through development without returning to market on short notice.
- Prosperity7 secures a position in a company whose later trajectory — a $1B+ valuation, a Hong Kong listing, and reported 2024 revenue above $85M — validated the entry price.
Second-order effects
- Insilico's funding cadence pressured peers like insitro, which answered with a $400M round led by Canada Pension Plan months later, escalating the capital bar for ML-first discovery startups.
- The Hong Kong listing route Insilico took gave China-operating AI drug developers a credible exit lane distinct from US exchanges, shaping where later rounds and IPOs in the sector priced.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, AI drug discovery consolidates around companies that can finance their own pipelines end-to-end — private rounds, public float, then pharma co-development deals like the up-to-$2.75B Eli Lilly collaboration with $115M upfront — rather than licensing targets out early.
- Big pharma's willingness to pay nine-figure upfronts to AI-native discoverers points toward a structural split: incumbents buy pipeline optionality while the ML platforms capture the discovery layer of the value chain.
The trend: AI drug discovery is maturing from venture-funded target identification into publicly listed platform companies that monetize pipelines through large pharma co-development deals.