2025年三季度制药生物工具风险投资趋势（英）2025

EMERGING TECH RESEARCH Pharma BiotoolsVC Trends VC activity across the pharma biotools ecosystem REPORT PREVIEWThe full report is available throughthe PitchBook Platform. Contents Pharma biotools landscape Institutional Research Group Analysis Ben RiccioAssociate Research Analystben.riccio@pitchbook.com DataMatt NacionalesData Analystpbinstitutionalresearch@pitchbook.com Publishing Report designed byJenna O’MalleyandChloe Ladwig Published on December 3, 2025 PharmaBioTools Quarterly analysis Key takeaways •The pharma biotools sector is undergoing an evolution:The historically hardware-heavysector is evolving into a more SaaS-like model as emerging startups integrate digital •Seed and early-stage funding led the way:With emerging technologies attracting significant investor interest, the sector has sustained a healthy seed and early-stage funding environment. •AI drug discovery drives growth:Deal counts for AI drug discovery platforms have risensharply over the past year. Lila Sciences, the developer of scientific AI models and autonomous VC activity The pharma biotools industry encompasses technologies and services supporting drug discovery,clinical-development, biopharmaceutical manufacturing, and diagnostics. The sector has evolvedfrom traditional laboratory equipment to complex platforms integrating digital technologies with QUARTERLY ANALYSIS underscoring the sector’s evolution to asset-light business models and early-stage technologies.As emerging platforms operate more like software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies than traditional Notable deal activity and areas of investment Nearly every area of the pharma biotools sector is seeing growing deal counts, highlightingthe innovation underway across technology subsegments. Among these, AI-enabled drugdevelopment tools have been one of the largest sources of growth. AI spans two subsegments inour taxonomy: AI-driven drug discovery—tools that use machine learning for target identification VC funding in Q3 totaled $1.3 billion across 106 deals. Total investment declined 7.8% YoY, whiledeal counts increased 34.2%. On a TTM basis, trends are similar with deal value, which is down Valuations and deal size Median pre-money valuations in the sector have fluctuated over the past five years but remainbroadly in the range of $30 million to $40 million. By stage, valuations have been volatile as wellbut overall have trended up for seed-stage rounds and down for early- and later-stage rounds. On a TTM basis, AI-driven drug discovery has seen a 35% increase in deal count, while thegenerative AI & quantum subsegment has seen a massive 193.3% uptick. These two categories The top AI deal of Q3 went to Lila Sciences, which raised a $235 million Series A at a $1.3 billionvaluation. The round has since added $115 million from NVIDIA, bringing the Series A total to $350million. The Flagship Pioneering startup is pursuing “scientific superintelligence” by integrating AI With increasing deal counts across steady capital deployment, medians in the sector have fallen.Year to date, overall deal value sits at $7.1 million compared with the 2020-2024 average of $9.7 QUARTERLY ANALYSIS The round highlights the value in addressing the data quantity and quality issues currently limitingfoundation models in biology. It also illustrates investor conviction in the platform-as-a-service Exit activity Given the sector’s relative immaturity, large exits remain few and far between for pharma biotoolsstartups. Exit activity in 2025 has been driven by smaller-scale M&A, as valuation pressure and Another major AI round went to Chai Discovery, which raised a $70 million Series A at a $573million valuation. The startup develops generative models for antibody design. The latest model, Chai-2, boasts zero-shot generation (meaning the model can design antibodies for targets outsideits training data) and reportedly has a double-digit success rate, above that of similar computation Public listings have been equally muted this year, with just three IPOs through Q3. All haveoccurred in Asia: two in China and one in South Korea. This aligns with broader biotech trends,where public listings have also favored Asia, as the region matures into a major biotech player. In Outside of AI, Colossal Biosciences raised $120 million through a Series C extension, bringingthe total round to $320 million. The startup, which deploys gene-editing technology forwildlife conservation and de-extinction, has now reached a $10.3 billion valuation. The lofty valuation signals investor conviction in the long-term goal of reviving extinct species, but alsoin commercializing gene-editing and synthetic biology discoveries along the way. The company Given that the current pharma biotools funding environment is heavily weighted toward early- QUARTERLY ANALYSIS About PitchBookIndustry and Technology PitchBook Data, Inc. Nizar TarhuniExecutive Vice President of Research and Market Intelligence