Barcelona, Spain, and Kyiv, Ukraine – March 3, 2026 – Pharmacelera, the deeptech company pushing the limits of computational technologies for drug discovery, and Chemspace, a global provider of small molecules and drug discovery services, today announced the launch of a powerful new joint solution that integrates the Chemspace Freedom Space 5.0 with Pharmacelera’s flagship virtual screening platform, exaScreen®. This launch provides researchers with unprecedented access to synthetically tractable chemical space combined with cutting-edge computational methods for hit discovery.

As the pharmaceutical industry increasingly turns to ultra-large libraries to identify novel hits, the challenge lies in navigating chemical diversity accurately while ensuring synthetic feasibility. The new joint solution directly addresses this challenge by combining Pharmacelera’s advanced 3D Quantum-Mechanics (QM) and Machine Learning (ML)-driven algorithms with the Chemspace Freedom Space, a curated collection of 296 billion chemically diverse and highly synthesizable compounds.

With this launch, researchers will be able to:

• Conduct accurate and efficient virtual screening across the Chemspace Freedom Space.
• Rapidly source and synthesize compounds for experimental validation.
• Expand opportunities to generate novel Intellectual Property (IP) through unexplored chemical space.
• Streamline the path from virtual prediction to real-world testing. 

• Round led by Heran Partners and joined by Clave Capital, Inveready and Bio&Tech Smart Capital
• Financing will enable Pharmacelera to build ongoing relationships with major pharm and biotech customers in the US
• Pharmacelera’s platform scours vast chemical ‘exaSpace’ accurately for novel molecules

Barcelona, Spain, February 18, 2026 – Pharmacelera, a deep tech company applying Quantum Mechanics and Artificial Intelligence to revolutionize drug discovery, has closed a €6 million investment round to accelerate its expansion in the United States and grow the capabilities of its proprietary platform.

Utilizing its proprietary Quantum Mechanics and Artificial Intelligence (“QaiM”) algorithms, Pharmacelera is revolutionizing drug discovery by finding novel and diverse molecular candidates across the vast chemical “exaSpace” with unprecedented speed, efficiency and accuracy. It can generate molecules that are up to 10 times better, 75,000 times faster, than traditional AI-led drug discovery approaches. Its technology can be applied to small molecules and small peptides in all stages of drug discovery – from hit identification, through hit-to-lead, to lead optimization.

This investment round will help Pharmacelera grow further and faster – firstly, by establishing a permanent team in the U.S., and secondly, by enabling the Company to expand the technical capabilities of its unique QaiM drug discovery engine in key growth areas.

The round was led by Heran Partners, a leading life sciences investor, and joined by Clave Capital, a long-standing tech transfer investor; Inveready, a Spanish alternative asset manager with a dedicated life sciences strategy; and Bio&Tech Smart Capital, a specialist investor in healthtech and science-based innovation.

Pharmacelera, accelerated by The Collider program at Barcelona Mobile World Capital,  has already participated in more than 100 projects to date, including several notable successes in GPCRs. It has won repeat business from customers in both Europe and the U.S., including three big pharma companies and numerous highly-regarded biotechs.

Enric Gibert, Chief Executive Officer of Pharmacelera, said: “The first wave of AI-powered drug discovery promised a lot but delivered comparatively little. Pharmacelera is changing the picture, by coupling AI with quantum-based simulations to leverage the exaSpace – the vast, undiscovered universe of trillions of molecules – to find highly novel drug candidates that are up to 10 times better, using a process that’s up to 75,000 times faster than traditional AI-led approaches.”

He continued: “The backing of these leading investors, who have a deep understanding of drug discovery, is a strong validation of our revolutionary technology. The funding will enable us to establish a team in the U.S. – a natural next step to continue strengthening our relationships with large pharmaceutical and biotech companies on both the East and West coasts. It will also help us to greatly widen the capabilities of our QaiM engine.”

Raf Roelands, Partner at Heran Partners and new member of Pharmacelera’s Board of Directors, said: “By combining physics-based algorithms with machine learning, Pharmacelera enables the design of molecular candidates for novel targets and modes of action with a higher probability of success. We have a high conviction in this company, which was reinforced through direct discussions with its customers, including leading pharmaceutical companies, who have already experienced the significant impact of its technology.”

The funding round follows the signing of a strategic alliance between Pharmacelera and Silicon Valley company igniter General Inception (GI) in 2023, in which Pharmacelera became GI’s AI drug discovery strategic partner. Venkat Reddy, GI’s Chief Scientific Officer, sits on Pharmacelera’s Board of Directors. Since then, Pharmacelera’s technology has strengthened the intellectual property of several of GI’s portfolio companies.

For more information, please contact:

contact@pharmacelera.com

Notes to Editors

About Pharmacelera

Pharmacelera is a deep tech computational drug discovery company applying its advanced 3D Quantum Mechanics and Artificial Intelligence (“QaiM”) engine to explore the vast chemical “exaspace” – which potentially comprises trillions of molecules – with unprecedented speed, efficiency and accuracy. This engine can significantly outperform traditional methods in its ability to identify structurally diverse, novel, and synthesizable compounds. Using this technology, the Company’s world class, cross-disciplinary team has already participated in more than 100 projects. Pharmacelera’s diversified and scalable business model has attracted recurrent customers including several big pharma firms and many prominent biotechs. Founded by AI engineers, drug hunters from industry and top academic profiles, its founders have co-authored more than 500 publications and hold more than 50 patents on technology and drug discovery. It is backed by Heran Partners, Clave Capital, Inveready and Bio&Tech Smart Capital and based at the Parc Científic de Barcelona, one of Europe’s premiere life science hubs. For more information, please visit https://pharmacelera.com/

About Heran Partners

Heran Partners is a specialist venture capital investor committed to creating transformative impact within the life sciences and healthcare industry. It is a Belgium-based investment fund driven by a dedicated team with strong scientific and entrepreneurial backgrounds. It provides venture and growth capital accompanied by a strong network, expertise and mentorship to start-ups and scale-ups with a solid technology platform and strong market potential.

Heran’s investment philosophy centers on addressing emerging health challenges such as an ageing population, the surge in chronic diseases, and associated increases in healthcare costs. Heran believes in harnessing the revolutionary potential of technology, science, and data to meet these challenges head-on. It focusses on solutions for unmet needs in the market. For more information, please visit https://www.heranpartners.com/

About Clave Capital

Clave Capital is an independent alternative asset management firm specialized in innovative projects and industrial SMEs. The firm has extensive experience in creating business value from scientific research results, with more than 20 years of expertise in investing, building, and supporting technology projects from their early stages, with a clear focus on technology transfer. Currently, the firm manages €173 million, with a highlight being Clave Innohealth F.C.R., a €50 million fund specialized in medical technologies and promoted with the support of CDTI Innvierte and several private investors linked to the healthcare sector. For more information, please visit https://clave.capital/

About Inveready

Inveready is a leading financial services firm specialized in Alternative Assets, Wealth Management, and Investment Funds. Founded in 2008 as a venture capital fund, Inveready has evolved into one of the most active investment firms for small and medium-sized enterprises in Spain, currently managing over €2.4 billion.

The financial group organizes its services into three main business lines: Alternative Assets, which includes various direct investment strategies (Venture Capital, Life Sciences Venture Debt, Strategic Public Equity, Private Equity, and Infrastructure); Wealth Management, which advises clients across a range of high-value products and services; and Investment Funds, investing in small-cap equities with a value investing approach through its management company True Value.

With a team of 60 employees, Inveready is headquartered in San Sebastián, with offices in Barcelona and Madrid. The firm has been recognized as “Best Venture Capital Firm” by SpainCap in 2017 and “Best European Venture Debt Fund” by Preqin in 2023, among other awards. For more information, please visit https://inveready.com/

About Bio&Tech Smart Capital

Bio&Tech Smart Capital, FCRE is an early-stage venture capital fund based in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, focused on investing in life sciences, healthtech and science-driven technology companies. The fund is managed by Noso Capital and is deeply connected to Galicia’s growing innovation ecosystem, combining strong regional roots with an active investment focus across Spain.

The fund was created with the mission of translating scientific knowledge into scalable, high-potential businesses, supporting founders at Seed and Series A stages. Bio&Tech Smart Capital is led by a team combining venture capital experience, scientific research and entrepreneurship, backing differentiated technologies with clear and meaningful applications in healthcare. For more information, please visit https://biotechsmartcapital.com/ , https://nosocapital.com/es-es/index

About General Inception

General Inception (GI) is pioneering company creation as an Igniter company. General Inception partners with extraordinary scientific founders at the inception of their journey to efficiently translate their groundbreaking innovations into transformational companies that address humanity’s grand challenges. As a business co-founder, GI brings together domain and functional expertise, executive talent, infrastructure and development resources, and capital to ignite, nurture and scale the company journey. GI is backed by leading venture capital firms Genoa Ventures, Hughes Ventures, Northpond Ventures, OMX Ventures, Paladin Capital Group, and Vertical Venture Partners. For more information, please visit https://www.generalinception.com/

California, US & Barcelona, Spain — October 13^th, 2025 —

Together with eMolecules we announce the launch of a new integrated solution combining ExaScreen® with the eMolecules eXplore/Synple library. The partnership delivers researchers a streamlined path from virtual screening to physical compounds, accelerating early-stage drug discovery.

The pharmaceutical industry increasingly relies on large, diverse libraries to identify novel hits. Yet, efficiently navigating chemical space while ensuring synthetic feasibility remains a key challenge. The new solution combines Pharmacelera’s Quantum-Mechanics (QM) and Machine Learning (ML)-driven algorithms with the eXplore/Synple library’s curated, synthetically tractable compounds, enabling scientists to quickly identify, source, and test new chemical matter:

• Accurate screening of tractable chemical space using ExaScreen®
• Rapid access to compounds for experimental validation via eMolecules
• Novel IP opportunities through exploration of untapped chemical diversity
• End-to-end workflow from computational predictions to physical samples

“Our collaboration with Pharmacelera brings a powerful combination of computational precision and practical compound access,” said Jeff Desroches, SVP Corporate Development.

“Partnering with eMolecules aligns perfectly with Pharmacelera’s strategy of working with leading organizations that complement our technology and expertise,” said Rémy Hoffmann, Chief Business Development Officer at Pharmacelera.

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About eMolecules

eMolecules is driven to improve the human condition by enabling scientists to accelerate their research to find effective therapeutics. To achieve this, eMolecules provides business intelligence data and integrated ecommerce software for screening compounds, chemical building blocks and primary antibody supply chains. These tools, combined with their acquisition, aggregation and analytical services, greatly empower drug discovery researchers working in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, academia, CRO and agrichemical industries. eMolecules was founded in 2005 at its San Diego, California, USA headquarters and has offices and laboratory space in San Diego and London, UK, employing nearly 60 people, globally.

About Pharmacelera

Pharmacelera is a deep-tech science-first company founded by experienced drug hunters, high-performance computing engineers, and leading academic researchers. The company has developed a proprietary in-silico platform that integrates accurate 3D Quantum-Mechanics (QM) models with advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms to design novel, diverse, and high-quality molecules from ultra-large and previously untapped chemical spaces. Pharmacelera provides access to its cutting-edge technology for HitId, H2L and LO through yearly software licenses and it also offers AI-driven drug discovery services spanning the entire small-molecule pipeline. The company has a growing customer base across Europe and the United States, including several top-tier pharmaceutical companies.

Cambridge, UK & Barcelona, Spain — August 27^th, 2025 — Domainex, a leading integrated drug discovery services company, and Pharmacelera, a pioneer in AI-based molecular modelling technologies, today announced a strategic collaboration to support discovery programmes focused on transmembrane proteins such as G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and ion channels—critical therapeutic targets implicated in a broad range of diseases.

Transmembrane proteins represent over 60% of current drug targets but pose significant challenges for drug discovery due to their structural complexity and instability outside the lipid membrane environment. By combining their complementary technologies and expertise, Domainex and Pharmacelera aim to overcome these hurdles and accelerate the discovery of novel, high-quality drug candidates.

Under the partnership, Domainex will contribute its Polymer Lipid Particle (PoLiPa) technology (which stabilises membrane protein targets by encapsulating them in polymer nanodiscs, allowing purification in their native state for screening), alongside its Direct-to-Biology (D2B) platform for high-throughput synthesis and biological testing. Pharmacelera will integrate its state-of-the-art AI-driven platforms—exaScreen® and PharmScreen®—for advanced molecular modelling, virtual screening, and library design. Together, the companies will offer a comprehensive and seamless solution to identify and optimise hits against these challenging targets.

“This collaboration between Domainex and Pharmacelera combines innovative technologies and represents optimal approaches for drug discovery programmes and is part of our commitment to achieve faster and successful approvals for our customers.” said Dr Hayley French, CEO of Domainex.

“We are excited to partner with Domainex,” said Dr. Enric Gibert, CEO of Pharmacelera. “This partnership reflects our shared commitment to advancing science and bringing impactful therapeutics in challenging areas. By pairing our cutting-edge AI models with Domainex’s experimental data and technology platforms, we can accelerate the path from concept to candidate.

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About Domainex

Domainex is a multi-award-winning, integrated drug discovery service partner which provides tailored discovery solutions from target expression through to the identification of pre-clinical candidates. Our world-leading experts accelerate research projects by combining a problem-solving approach with cutting-edge technologies such as PoLiPa and D2B. With deep expertise across a wide range of target classes and therapeutic areas, and a core focus on the hit identification and hit-to-lead stages, we deliver high-quality results that support confident, timely decision-making for our partners. Domainex operates from state of the art facilities in the Cambridge area, UK. The company has also expanded internationally and has opened an office in Cambridge, MA, to service the thriving biotechnology industry in North America. Further information about Domainex and our award-winning lead discovery services can be found at www.domainex.co.uk.

About Pharmacelera

Pharmacelera develops advanced computational tools for the discovery of novel hits using accurate Quantum-Mechanics (QM), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and High-Performance Computing (HPC). The company’s products PharmScreen®, exaScreen® and PharmQSAR use 3D molecular descriptors derived from Quantum-Mechanics (QM) calculations to mine an unexplored chemical space and to identify hits uncovered by traditional algorithms. Pharmacelera is a private company founded in 2015 and based in Barcelona, Spain. The company works with several big pharma and biotech organizations across Europe and the United States.

We are thrilled to announce a collaboration between Pharmacelera and the UMass Chan Medical School aimed to support early-stage drug discovery projects.

Through this collaboration, Pharmacelera will use its cutting-edge computational chemistry technology, AI-driven molecular modelling platforms and industry-based expertise in medicinal chemistry to support several early-stage drug discovery programs targeting different families of targets with the aim of enhancing hit identification, lead optimization, and chemical space exploration.

“This partnership reflects our shared commitment to advancing science and bringing impactful therapeutics closer to the clinic,” said Enric Gibert, CEO of Pharmacelera. “Our technology is designed to push the frontiers of early drug discovery, and we are proud to support UMass Chan’s world-class research teams.”

“We are excited to partner with Pharmacelera to integrate their advanced modelling tools into our drug discovery workflows,” said Huseyin Mehmet, Executive Director, New Ventures, BRIDGE Innovation & Business Development of the UMass Chan Medical School. “This collaboration will enhance our ability to discover and optimize novel compounds for unmet medical needs in the areas of cancer and ALS.”

Stay tuned as we share more about our joint projects and scientific milestones in the coming months.

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About UMass Chan Medical School

UMass Chan Medical School, one of five campuses of the University of Massachusetts system, comprises the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing, ForHealth Consulting at UMass Chan Medical School, MassBiologics, and a thriving Nobel-Prize-winning biomedical research enterprise. UMass Chan is advancing together to improve the health and wellness of our diverse communities throughout Massachusetts and across the world by leading and innovating in education, research, health care delivery and public service. It is ranked among the best medical schools in the nation for primary care education and biomedical research by U.S. News & World Report. Learn more at www.umassmed.edu.  

About Pharmacelera

Pharmacelera develops advanced computational tools for the discovery of novel hits using accurate Quantum-Mechanics (QM), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and High-Performance Computing (HPC). The company’s products PharmScreen®, exaScreen® and PharmQSAR use 3D molecular descriptors derived from Quantum-Mechanics (QM) calculations to mine an unexplored chemical space and to identify hits uncovered by traditional algorithms. Pharmacelera is a private company founded in 2015 and based in Barcelona, Spain. The company works with several big pharma and biotech organizations across Europe and the United States.

In our latest paper published in the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling (JCIM) by the American Chemical Society, we introduce two innovative methods for exploring ultra-large chemical libraries using accurate 3D quantum mechanics-based descriptors. 

The rapid expansion of ultra-large chemical libraries has revolutionized drug discovery, providing access to billions of compounds. However, this growth poses relevant challenges for traditional virtual screening (VS) methods. To address these limitations, synthon-based approaches have emerged as scalable alternatives, exploiting combinatorial chemistry principles to prioritize building blocks over enumerated molecules.  

With current library sizes, synthon-based approaches have 100k times lower computational cost than brute force methods. Since chemical spaces are growing rapidly and synthon-based methods scale better, this gap will continuously grow. 

In this work, we present exaScreen and exaDock, two novel synthon-based methodologies designed for ligand-based and structure-based VS, respectively.  

exaScreen: Our 3D ligand-based tool for virtual screening exploits atomic descriptors to select the optimal synthons through similarity measurements of the 3D molecular fields generated by the synthons and the reference fragment. For the set of reference compounds considered, the overall accuracy of exaScreen compares with the results obtained with brute force, as noted in the similar recovery of actives and the significant degree of identity between the actives selected by the two methods but at a significantly lower computational cost. exaScreen explores 70 billion compounds in less than 7 hours in a single workstation and requires less than 6 GB of disk storage. 

exaDock: Our new structure-based method for ultra-large libraries exploits a restrained docking to explore hybrid compounds (fragment reference + synthon) recurrently for the distinct reference fragments, which ultimately leads to the selection of the optimal synthon-based compounds built from the best ranked synthons identified for the reference fragments. The exaDock methodology can perform a search of EnamineREAL with a 50K lower computational cost than brute force. 

We evaluated both approaches across 11 diverse biological targets, including kinases and GPCRs. We show that exaScreen and exaDock achieve recovery rates comparable to brute-force screening strategies, offering computationally efficient strategies for VS in ultra-large chemical spaces using accurate 3D descriptors.  

One particularly interesting observation is the difference in scaffold overlap between our proposed methods and brute-force methods. In ligand-based, there is a significant overlap among the recovered active scaffolds while, in structure-based, the overlap is lower. This difference is explained by the influence of the geometrical and physicochemical properties of the binding site, particularly to the compactness of the pocket and to the solvent exposure of the reference fragments.