London-based SOLVE Chemistry secures £4m to modernise chemical production

An AI-driven chemistry startup, SOLVE Chemistry, has raised £4 million seed funding to expand its work helping pharmaceutical and agrochemical manufacturers bring products to market faster, more sustainably, and at lower cost.

The significant time and expense needed to design a chemical production line prevent drugs and agrochemicals from quickly reaching the people who need them, and exposes manufacturers to the risk that market conditions could change while they wait.

To scale chemical production more quickly, SOLVE Chemistry, a spinout from Imperial College London, uses novel ultra-high-throughput data collection hardware at its London lab to obtain accurate data on chemical reactions 20 times faster than traditional high throughput experimentation, and trains AI models to predict the best way to manufacture chemicals.

Dr Linden Schrecker, CEO of SOLVE Chemistry, said: "Across the different chemical industries everyone wants to be more efficient and produce the compounds society needs quicker, despite the challenges industry faces. We are helping pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and specialty chemical companies do just that.”

Investment for growth

The investment round was led by XTX Ventures along with participation from SuperSeed, Creator Fund, and climate fund Endgame Capital. The round also brings together business expertise from Inovia Capital’s Raif Jacobs (10+ years at Google, ex-CFO of Deliveroo), Redbus Ventures’ Simon Franks (founder of LoveFilm, now Amazon Prime Video), and Debora Fang (ex-Head of M&A at Unilever). 

This funding will enable SOLVE Chemistry to quadruple production capacity and expand their team, as well as build new capabilities to deliver even more value to pharmaceutical and agrochemical manufacturers as they scale-up their processes.

Al Giles, Venture Partner at Creator Fund, said “We backed SOLVE Chemistry from day one because of their potential to transform the speed new drugs and agrochemicals are produced, as well as the founders’ infectious drive. In just 18 months, they’ve won over some of the world’s biggest companies. We’re thrilled to welcome new top-tier investors and continue supporting SOLVE Chemistry as they scale.”

From Imperial labs to industry

SOLVE Chemistry grew out of Imperial research sponsored by global chemical company BASF by Dr Linden Schrecker and Dr Jose Pablo Folch. Supported by early hires Dr Sarah Boyall and Dr Tom Dixon from the University of Leeds, they built a self-driving lab that can print chemical data and insights on a commercial scale.

SOLVE Chemistry rapidly spun out from Imperial in April 2024 in only one month, slashing average six month university spin out timelines thanks to the support of pre-seed funders Creator Fund, the new streamlined Imperial system, and the perseverance of their founders. 

The team began by renting lab space at Imperial’s White City Deep Tech Campus, which is home to more than 100 startups and rapidly scaling companies, before rapidly expanding to larger facilities within Scale Space which offers state-of-the-art lab facilities that are built for science and R&D.

Imperial’s White City Deep Tech Campus is part of WestTech London, the frontier innovation ecosystem that is driving the next era of scientific and technological collaboration in London.

Chemical giants onboard

SOLVE Chemistry is working with major international companies generating revenues and securing grant funding to produce global value. These companies, including German chemical giant BASF and multinational pharmaceutical companies have realised the potential of SOLVE Chemistry’s technology to transform chemical production. They continue to develop work with a growing list of major global producers of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals.

Photo: Dave Guttridge/Imperial College London