2 min read - 21 Sep, 2026
Chemify secures £22m grant for £89.9m Glasgow expansion
Chemify, a Glasgow-based digital chemistry company, has secured a £22m funding package from Scottish Enterprise (£16m) and the UK government (£6m). Combined with Chemify’s own investment of £67.9m, the total £89.9m expansion project will accelerate company growth, create up to 300 new jobs, and strengthen Scotland’s position as a global hub for life sciences innovation.
Founded in 2019 as a University of Glasgow spinout with initial backing from Innovate UK’s Innovation Accelerator programme, Chemify is pioneering the way new medicines and advanced materials are discovered.
It has developed technology which combines robotics and AI to automate the design, manufacture and testing of new chemical compounds. This will help accelerate innovation across the pharmaceutical and advanced materials industries, with the potential to help researchers develop new treatments and advanced materials faster and at lower cost.
As part of the expansion, Chemify will establish its new global headquarters and research and development centre at the University of Glasgow’s Health Innovation Hub in Govan. This move will help anchor the company’s future growth in Scotland while expanding its automated manufacturing operations in Glasgow.
Chemify is investing £89.9m to scale its digital chemistry technology and unlock 300 new jobs in Glasgow / Picture: Chemify
Over the next three years, Chemify plans to grow its Scottish workforce from 152 to around 450 employees, creating up to 300 highly skilled roles and safeguarding a further 100 jobs.
Professor Lee Cronin, founder and CEO of Chemify, said: “Just one year ago, our first Chemifarm in Glasgow proved that chemputation works by grounding AI-enabled drug discovery in physical synthesis and improving the design and makeability of new molecules and materials.
“The additional funding will enable us to hyperscale chemistry, expand our next-generation Chemifarm and advance our Chemify Genesis system to vastly increase our capacity to create new molecules, materials and medicines, and bespoke datasets.”
The project establishes Chemify as the first ‘chemistry hyperscaler’, increasing its capacity to rapidly design and make new compounds for partners, scale its technology globally and create opportunities across Scotland’s life sciences, advanced manufacturing and technology sectors.
Chris McDonald, science minister, added: “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.”
