BioMap, a biotech startup, has confidentially submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, according to a Bloomberg report dated March 16. Sources familiar with the matter revealed that BioMap is working with China International Capital Corporation, Morgan Stanley, and UBS Group AG on the offering, which is expected to raise several hundred million dollars. Discussions are ongoing, and details such as the size and timing of the offering may still change.
Notably, BioMap submitted its application under Hong Kong's confidential filing mechanism. Under current rules, companies using this "secret application" process are only required to publish their prospectus on the exchange's website and launch the roadshow and pricing process after passing the HKEX's listing hearing. All application documents remain confidential until that point. In short, this move signals another innovative company focused on the "AI + biotech" sector is making a push to list in Hong Kong. With multiple companies entering the listing pipeline, 2026 is becoming a critical window for AI-driven biotech firms to access public capital markets.
Founded in 2020, BioMap was established by Baidu co-founder Robin Li and former Baidu Ventures CEO Liu Wei. Headquartered in Beijing, the company is positioned as an innovative drug discovery platform driven by a biological computing engine, aiming to integrate AI with advanced biotechnology. Public information shows BioMap has raised over $200 million across two funding rounds. In July 2021, it closed a Series A round exceeding $100 million, led by GGV Capital with participation from Baidu, Legend Capital, BlueRun Ventures, ZhenFund, and XiangHe Capital, alongside additional investment from founder Robin Li.
In June 2024, the Hong Kong Investment Corporation, often referred to as "Hong Kong's Temasek," announced it would lead a new funding round for BioMap. As part of the agreement, BioMap will establish its first international innovation center, "BioMap InnoHub," in Hong Kong, with HKIC providing resources and support for the company's subsequent development in the city. The company's leadership team includes Robin Li as Chairman, Liu Wei as CEO, former Ant Group AI engineering head Zhang Xiaoming as Head of AI R&D, and renowned AI scientist and Westlake University Professor Li Ziqing as Chief AI Scientist.
BioMap has consistently invested in building foundational large models for life sciences, encompassing data, models, and industry ecosystems. In 2021, the company launched the "Immune Atlas Excellence Program," soliciting projects from clinical translational medicine researchers and scientific collaborators to accelerate research in areas like oncology, autoimmune diseases, and fibrosis using its bio-computing engine.
In 2024, BioMap released its biological large model xTrimo V3. With 210 billion parameters, it set a record at the time for the world's largest AI foundational model in life sciences. The model covers seven major life science modalities, including proteins, DNA, and RNA, and achieves state-of-the-art (SOTA) performance on over 200 tasks. BioMap has also built a "dry-wet closed-loop" capability, forming a core technical barrier for its computational drug discovery platform and overcoming the traditional bottlenecks of low efficiency and long cycles in drug R&D.
Operationally, the company states it serves over 800 institutional users globally and more than 30 leading enterprise clients, with a total potential order value of $2 billion. Its large models have gained the favor of multinational pharmaceutical company Sanofi. In October 2023, BioMap entered a strategic collaboration with Sanofi to jointly develop cutting-edge AI modules for biotherapeutic drug discovery using BioMap's AI platform. For this collaboration, BioMap received a $10 million upfront payment, near-term model development fees, and potential R&D and sales milestone payments related to certain products, with the total potential deal value exceeding $1 billion. This marked the first collaboration in life sciences based on a foundational large model, opening a new business model for AI biotech firms.
BioMap's current clientele includes industry leaders such as Sanofi, CSPC Pharmaceutical Group, and Dabeinong, spanning top pharmaceutical companies, research institutions, and bio-manufacturing enterprises across drug discovery, agricultural chemicals, and environmental protection. These clients primarily utilize BioMap's AI models and computing platform to enhance drug R&D efficiency, optimize biomanufacturing processes, and drive agricultural biotech innovation.
Bloomberg previously reported that BioMap CEO Liu Wei stated the company planned to seek a public listing in Hong Kong within the next year and a half, noting that Hong Kong is the preferred listing destination for early-stage tech companies like BioMap. BioMap is not alone; several other AI biotech firms have been reported to be planning Hong Kong listings. For instance, AI drug delivery company Jittery Pharma and Earendil Labs, a subsidiary of AI antibody discovery firm Huashen Zhiji, have also been reported to be in the process of preparing for Hong Kong listings.
In 2025, IPOs and secondary offerings in Hong Kong's healthcare sector raised over $13 billion, hitting a four-year high. As the Hong Kong healthcare market gradually recovers, AI biotech companies are attracting investor attention. In December of last year, Insilico Medicine, another player in the AI drug discovery space, listed in Hong Kong, raising $337 million, with its stock price rising steadily since listing.
On the U.S. market, generative biology company Generate Biomedicines listed on the Nasdaq in February of this year, raising $400 million at an offering price of $16 per share, marking the largest IPO to date in the AI biotech sector. It can be said that 2026 is shaping up to be a critical window for AI biotech firms to enter public markets, as the industry accelerates from a phase of technological exploration into a new stage of industrial validation and value realization.
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