Anew Labs raises $290m in first external financing at $1.5bn valuation
The ByteDance drug-discovery spinout brings in an external investor syndicate while ByteDance retains a reported majority stake.
An external investor syndicate after the spinout
Reuters reported on September 16, 2026 that Anew Labs had completed its first external fundraising, raising $290 million at a $1.5 billion valuation. Citing people familiar with the transaction, the report named HSG, IDG Capital and GL Ventures as leads, with 5Y Capital as a co-lead.
Continuing ByteDance ownership
Other reported investors included Gaorong Ventures, Primavera Venture Partners, Boyu Capital, SBP Group and Shanghai Future Industries Fund. ByteDance was reported to retain a 56% stake following the transaction. The financing follows the separation of the Shanghai-based drug-discovery business from ByteDance, establishing an external capital base while its former parent remains the controlling shareholder.
Use of funds
Scale computational biology infrastructure and acquire high-performance GPU clusters
Expand machine learning and molecular chemistry research teams
Accelerate automated wet-lab testing and validation pipelines