Scottish Enterprise has announced an £89.9 million expansion project centred on Glasgow digital-chemistry company Chemify. The headline figure is not a single public grant. According to the agency’s release, the public sector is contributing £22 million — £16 million from Scottish Enterprise and £6 million from the UK government, via the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade — with Chemify putting in £67.9 million.

The project is intended to accelerate the company’s growth, create up to 300 highly skilled jobs and strengthen Scotland’s position in life sciences. “Up to 300” is an expansion target, not a count of posts already filled. Chemify’s Scottish workforce is expected to rise from 152 employees to around 450 over the next three years, with a further 100 jobs safeguarded.

Chemify was founded in 2019 as a University of Glasgow spin-out, with early backing through Innovate UK’s Innovation Accelerator programme. The company describes “Chemputation” as a fusion of robotics and artificial intelligence that turns digital code into physical molecules. Digital chemistry does not mean substances exist only virtually: the aim remains the synthesis and testing of real compounds, with parts of design, planning and execution automated.

As part of the expansion, the firm will establish its new global headquarters and research-and-development centre at the University of Glasgow’s Health Innovation Hub in Govan, in the Glasgow Riverside Innovation District. The announcement also speaks of increasing capacity to design and make compounds for partners, in a model the company calls a “chemistry hyperscaler”.

Adrian Gillespie, Scottish Enterprise’s chief executive, called the investment a vote of confidence in Scotland as a place to scale deep-tech businesses. The agency says it has backed Chemify since 2023. UK science minister Chris McDonald highlighted the use of artificial intelligence and robotics in drug discovery, and Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Tourism and Transport Stephen Flynn linked the project to Scotland’s life-sciences strategy, including the aim of growing the sector’s contribution to £25 billion by 2035.

Founder and chief executive Lee Cronin said the first Chemifarm in Glasgow had shown a year earlier that the approach works by grounding AI-enabled discovery in physical synthesis. The extra funding, he said, would allow a next-generation Chemifarm and the Chemify Genesis system to be expanded. Those are the company’s statements about a growth plan, not measured outcomes of the expansion.

Life sciences, in the Scottish reading, spans pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, diagnostics, medical technologies and related research. Economically, the appeal is not only headcount but the mix of skills: chemists, researchers, engineers, software specialists and technical staff. The release also notes an extension of Chemify’s Series B round to £51.9 million, taking total funding raised above £110 million; that is distinct from the £89.9 million expansion package.

What is confirmed for now is the investment announcement and the expansion plan, not the jobs tally at the end of the three years. Economic effects will have to be judged as the project is implemented.

Photo: Diliff, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0. The Gilbert Scott Building, University of Glasgow. The historic campus, not the Govan Health Innovation Hub and not Chemify’s laboratory. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: £89.9m boost for Scotland’s life sciences sector (Scottish Enterprise).