MetaNovas
Category: AI in Biotech / Drug Discovery
AI-native new material development platform using agentic AI to accelerate discovery of bioactive ingredients, medical materials, and functional polymers. MetaNovas was founded in 2021. The company is led by Meijie Wang (王梅杰). Based in Shanghai, China / Los Angeles, USA. Team size: 11-50. Total funding raised: $15.0M. Latest round: Series A. Key investors include Hillhouse Capital / Hillhouse Ventures (高瓴资本/高瓴创投), Fuhua Capital (富华资本), Kangaroo Mother Group (袋鼠妈妈集团), Baoding Ventures / Pagoda Top Capital (宝顶创投), Ruoyuchen Technology (若羽臣), GRC SinoGreen Capital, Danlu Capital (丹麓资本), Jianyi Capital / Sinopharm Capital (健壹资本/原国药资本), Redhill Capital, Neux Capital.
- Founded
- 2021
- Headquarters
- Shanghai, China / Los Angeles, USA
- Team size
- 11-50
- Total funding
- $15.0M
Value proposition
MetaNovas builds a system-level operating platform centered on Agentic AI to make multi-objective decisions in highly uncertain R&D environments, reducing new material development from 3-5 years to as fast as 12 months by integrating molecular generation, performance prediction, experimental planning, and market intelligence into autonomous AI agents.
Products and solutions
Orphic - end-to-end AI agent platform for consumer product innovation (160+ domain skills, 45+ proprietary scientific/regulatory databases), Self-developed large molecular language generation model (covers 10^60 chemical space, >95% molecular generation efficiency), Performance prediction models for physicochemical properties, AI agents for literature mining, molecular generation, performance prediction, experimental planning, market & commercialization, Senoreversing (aging reversal) peptide, AMP33 antibacterial/anti-inflammatory molecule (medical device master file record).
Unique value
First-to-market success rate of AI-recommended molecules exceeds 60% (vs industry standard); full-chain agentic AI platform covering from market insight to commercialization; self-owned wet lab generating proprietary positive AND negative training data; cross-modal molecular language model covering polypeptides, polymers, and small molecules.
Target customer
Consumer health & beauty brands (cosmeceutical, nutraceutical), pharmaceutical companies, CDMOs, and material science companies seeking AI-driven ingredient discovery and product innovation.
Industries served
Cosmeceuticals & Personal Care, Nutraceuticals, Medical Materials, Functional Polymers, Photochemical Ingredients, Odor & Flavor Ingredients, Drug Discovery
Technology advantage
Proprietary large molecular language generation model covering 10^60 chemical space; active learning system that auto-iterates based on experimental data including rare negative samples; self-owned high-throughput wet experiment platform; 45+ proprietary scientific and regulatory databases; 160+ domain-specific AI agent skills; composite team of AI, biology, and materials experts.
How they differentiate
Unlike most AI drug discovery platforms focused purely on pharma, MetaNovas targets the consumer health & beauty materials space with a full-chain agentic AI platform that integrates market intelligence, molecular design, experimental validation, and commercialization. Their self-owned wet lab generates proprietary negative training data (failed experiments) that most competitors lack, and their first-time success rate of >60% significantly outperforms industry benchmarks.
Main competitors
Insilico Medicine, XtalPi, METiS Therapeutics, BioMap, Schrödinger
Key partnerships
L'Oréal, Beiersdorf, Haleon, Takeda, Unilever, LEHVOSS Personal Care (partnership for AI-generated peptides for European cosmetics market), CDMO joint ventures for production scale-up, HelloBiome (co-hosted events).
Notable customers
L'Oréal, Beiersdorf, Haleon, Takeda, Unilever, LEHVOSS Personal Care
Major milestones
2021: Company founded in Shanghai and Los Angeles, 2022-03: ~$10M Angel round led by Danlu Capital and Jianyi Capital, 2024: Series A round co-led by Hillhouse Ventures and Baoding Ventures, 2025: Launched Orphic AI agent platform at in-cosmetics Global Paris, 2026-03: Completed back-to-back Series A+ and A++ rounds with Fuhua Capital, Hillhouse Capital, and Kangaroo Mother Group, AMP33 molecule obtained medical device master file record, Senoreversing peptide attracted Unilever attention.
Growth metrics
First-time success rate of AI-recommended molecules >60%; fastest bioactive raw material from concept to human efficacy testing in 12 months; Senoreversing peptide completed validation after testing only 42 peptide molecules and 2 rounds of iterations.
Market positioning
Pioneering AI-native new material development platform bridging the gap between AI molecular generation and commercial productization in consumer health, beauty, and specialty materials — positioned at the intersection of AI for Science and consumer goods innovation.
Geographic focus
China (Shanghai HQ), USA (Los Angeles/San Francisco Bay Area), Europe, Southeast Asia
Patents and IP
AMP33 molecule obtained medical device master file record (China NMPA); Senoreversing peptide attracting brand interest; multiple proprietary AI models and molecular pipelines.
About Meijie Wang (王梅杰)
Ex-NVIDIA AI Infrastructure Software Engineer (Silicon Valley); Ex-Olympus R&D Software Engineer; Ex-DawnLight Research Engineer AI Applications; Co-founded Studio Qfun and Nod App. Education: B.S. Tongji University (Cross-disciplinary Pilot Class); M.S. Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Computer Software & Media Applications); Stanford University (Technology & Engineering Management).
Latest news about MetaNovas
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Official website: https://www.metanovas.bio/