Digital chemistry company Chemify is creating up to 300 jobs in a £89.9 million investment supported by £22m of public funding.
Chemify is pioneering the way new medicines and advanced materials are discovered and will establish its new global headquarters and research and development centre at the University of Glasgow’s Health Innovation Hub in Govan, part of the Glasgow Riverside Innovation District.
It was founded in 2019 as a spinout from the university, with initial backing provided by Innovate UK’s Innovation Accelerator programme.
Professor Lee Cronin, founder and CEO of Chemify, said: “The additional funding will enable us to hyperscale chemistry.”
The expansion will increase Chemify’s Scottish workforce from 152 employees to around 450 over the next three years, creating up to 300 jobs and safeguarding a further 100.
Chemify is contributing £67.9m to the new funding round, with Scottish Enterprise providing £16m and the UK Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade £6m.
Scottish Enterprise chief executive Adrian Gillespie said: “Chemify’s investment is a powerful vote of confidence in Scotland as a place to scale innovative deep-tech businesses.
“It will accelerate the company’s growth and create exciting opportunities across chemistry, advanced manufacturing and life sciences sectors.
“Having supported Chemify since 2023, I’m excited to see Lee and his team continue to choose Scotland for their expansion. It underlines the strength of Scotland’s innovation environment and the calibre of companies growing here.
“By backing ambitious, scaling businesses like Chemify, we’re helping world-leading Scottish science make a bigger impact globally.”
Science Minister Chris McDonald said, “Chemify is changing the way that drugs are discovered by using artificial intelligence and robotics.
“They are doing this right here in Britain, which gives us the best opportunity to access new treatments earlier and make and sell drugs for the rest of the world.
“The decisions we have taken in our industrial strategy are helping companies like Chemify to start here in the UK, grow here and stay here. It is a big change from the past when many of our world leading science discoveries were commercialised overseas.
“We are aiming to have the third biggest life sciences industry in the world, and the biggest in Europe by 2035. It is one of the ways that we will help people across the country to get decent well paid jobs.
Economy Secretary Stephen Flynn said: “By supporting pioneering companies such as Chemify, we are reinforcing Scotland’s position at the forefront of scientific discovery and next generation technologies, while helping deliver the ambitions set out in our Life Sciences Strategy, including growing the sector’s contribution to £25 billion by 2035.”
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