C12.ai Raises $7 Million to Advance “AI Scientist” Robotics for Drug Discovery
Shanghai-based embodied AI startup C12.ai has secured 50 million yuan (approximately $7 million) in a new funding round, betting on its “AI scientist” platform to tackle the bottleneck in pharmaceutical wet labs.
The round was led by Yonghua Investment, with participation from Wei Hao Chuangxin and individual investors. C12.ai previously raised its angel round in August 2022 led by Yunqi Partners, with Jingya Capital, BioMap, and individual investors participating.
Founded in 2022 by Chen Zhigang, a veteran of the digital healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, C12.ai combines deep domain expertise with cutting-edge AI. Chen previously served as Chief Architect at Alibaba Health, founder of Tencent’s Healthcare Big Data Lab, and the first Chief Digital Officer at WuXi AppTec.
What sets C12.ai apart is its focus on bringing true intelligence to laboratory automation. Unlike traditional lab automation systems that rely on single-purpose workstations—costly and difficult to reuse across different experimental scenarios—C12.ai develops a mobile robotics “AI scientist” platform that can think, adapt, and learn.
Breakthrough: Talos Completes 50-Day Zero-Error Trial at BeiGene
Its flagship system, Talos, is a commercially available dual-arm mobile robot platform powered by C12.ai’s proprietary sensors and Vision-Language-Action (VLA) architecture. This enables the robot to perform complex laboratory operations while also assisting in drug discovery prediction tasks.
In a recent 50-day pilot deployment at the laboratory of global biopharmaceutical company BeiGene, Talos achieved remarkable results:
- Completed 15 molecule purification experiments
- Each experiment involved over 200 continuous operation steps
- Across more than 3,000 physical operations, the robot achieved zero operational errors and a 93% success rate
- Demonstrated performance approaching that of experienced medicinal chemists—a rare achievement in the industry
Molecular purification typically consumes more than 50% of a medicinal chemist’s working time, making it one of the most repetitive and time-consuming processes in pharmaceutical research.
Beyond Pharmaceuticals: Expanding to New Industries
Beyond drug discovery, the Talos platform is being explored for other applications. The company is currently in discussions with international cosmetics brands to apply the system to flexible manufacturing of personalized skincare products—where a consumer’s photo could generate a unique formula, and the robot produces a small batch overnight.
Chen envisions a broader mission: “We’re not making a single-point tool. We want robots to gradually penetrate along the entire lifecycle of a drug. Ultimately, we want good drugs to reach patients faster and cheaper.”
My take
C12.ai sits at an interesting intersection: it’s not a humanoid company building general-purpose robots, but it’s solving a real, painful problem—scientists spending 50% of their time on repetitive bench work. The 50-day zero-error trial at BeiGene is the kind of real-world validation that matters in enterprise sales. While everyone chases flashy humanoids, C12 is quietly building the “AI scientist” that pharma companies will actually pay for today. With Chen’s WuXi pedigree and this fresh capital, C12 has a shot at becoming the lab automation standard.
Tags: C12.ai, Funding, Lab Automation, Embodied AI, Drug Discovery, Chen Zhigang, Talos, China Robotics
Category: Companies
