AI (Artificial Intelligence) new drug development specialist company Syntekabio (CEO Jeong Jong-seon) announced on the 3rd that it has attracted an investment of 10 billion KRW from Korea Investment Partners. Syntekabio held a board meeting on March 28 and decided to issue the 3rd series of anonymous, interest-bearing, unsecured private convertible bonds (CB) worth 10 billion KRW. The investor is the ‘Korea Investment Re-up II Fund,’ operated by Korea Investment Partners as the GP.
Syntekabio plans to issue the CB under the conditions of a 0% nominal interest rate and a 3% maturity interest rate, according to the Financial Supervisory Service electronic disclosure. The conversion price is 11,534 KRW per share, and the CB payment date is scheduled for the 26th of this month.
As the AI new drug development industry is recognized as one of the next-generation key industries in the global pharmaceutical and biotech market, Syntekabio’s possession of an independent AI platform and its own data center was highly evaluated for future growth potential, which was instrumental in attracting investment.
Korea Investment Partners is regarded as the top venture capital (VC) firm in Korea with strengths in investments in the bio and medical fields, and it is expected to create synergy in business development by enhancing company value and utilizing its pool of invested companies.
With the funds raised through this investment, Syntekabio plans to build a factory-level platform for AI new drug candidate substance generation using AI supercomputing infrastructure. This will be used for developing Launchpad services utilizing the previously discovered candidate substances.
A representative from Korea Investment Partners who participated in the investment review stated, “After several months of investment review and due diligence, we decided to confirm the investment. We thoroughly examined the company’s technology, business structure, and business plan, and judged that it has reached a stage to deliver results.”
Jeong Jong-seon, CEO of Syntekabio, said, “With the Launchpad service preparation completed, we will strive for rapid commercialization. Since the automated process enables faster candidate substance derivation and development, we will continue business discussions at upcoming global conferences such as Bio IT World in April, Protein Engineering Summit (PEGS-BOSTON) in May, and BIO USA in June.”
Meanwhile, the Launchpad service provides previously discovered substances to shorten the time required to create first or best in class new drug pipelines for specific diseases. At the same time, in projects selecting about 100 targets to discover candidate substances, it has the advantage of deriving high-success-rate candidates and securing substances with commercialization potential.
The company believes that the new Launchpad model is faster than existing services that take about two years and will be efficient because it offers various options to major pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms, and startups.
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