Grand opening for spin-out’s £12m ‘Chemifarm’ hailed as ‘hugely significant milestone’
Published: 20 June 2025
The 21,500-ft² site at Oakbank Industrial Estate, in Maryhill unites Chemify’s AI-driven molecular-design engine with industrial-scale robotic synthesis.
Deep-tech pioneer Chemify - the University of Glasgow’s Spin-out of the Year 2024 - has performed the grand opening of its first Chemifarm – a new £12m production facility in Maryhill.
Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University, said the occasion marked “a hugely significant milestone” in the University’s strategy to translate cutting-edge research into commercial entities that can scale up to create jobs and economic impact for the city and region.
Founded in 2022, Chemify grew from Professor Lee Cronin’s research in digital chemistry at the University and is fusing chemistry, robotics, computation and AI to digitise molecule creation.
The 21,500-ft² site at Oakbank Industrial Estate, off Garscube Road, unites Chemify’s AI-driven molecular-design engine with industrial-scale robotic synthesis, compressing the journey from concept to compound and accelerating the discovery of small-molecule medicines and next-generation materials for partners tackling society’s toughest challenges.
Chemify says the facility is the most advanced chemical synthesis facility in the world which will eventually be home to more than 60 full-time scientists and hundreds of robots working on its platform, reducing waste and errors prone to traditional chemistry.
The facility features dedicated production suites, R&D labs, engineering and fabrication zones, and a secure cloud architecture capable of storing petabytes of high-resolution chemical data for AI-powered analysis. It will also prototype next-generation Chemifarm hardware destined for future global sites.
The £12 million project is backed by Innovate UK’s Innovation Accelerator programme, Scottish Enterprise, Glasgow City Council and Glasgow City Region.
Chemify has grown rapidly from a small core team to around 130 staff, who are currently based within laboratory space at the Advanced Research Building at the University.
Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University, was among a number of invited guests to the official launch of the Chemifarm on Friday afternoon (20 June). He said: “Chemifarm’s launch exemplifies the transformative impact that emerges when academic excellence translates into industrial innovation.
“This is a hugely significant milestone - as a University we are committed to working with our partners and funders to enable our cutting-edge research to translate into successful spin-outs that scale up and deliver impact on the regional economy creating jobs and strengthening our regional economic clusters.”
At Chemifarm’s core is a bespoke programming language, extensible robotics, and the world’s largest curated, and fastest growing, library of validated reactions—enabling the on-demand design, optimisation and scale-up of molecules once deemed unreachable.
Prof Cronin said: “The first Chemifarm is a watershed moment for molecular innovation. By combining automation, AI and scalable synthesis, we can now move from code to compound faster than ever, fueling breakthroughs in drug discovery, materials science and beyond.”
Dean Cook, Director for Place and Global at Innovate UK, said: “A key objective of the Innovation Accelerator programme was to drive the technologies of tomorrow, so it’s fantastic to see Chemify launch the world’s first Chemputation facility.”
Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise Adrian Gillespie said: “This Chemifarm facility represents a significant milestone for the company, allowing them to drive innovation, create high-quality jobs and position Scotland at the forefront of the global healthtech market.”
Councillor Susan Aitken, Leader of Glasgow City Council and Chair of the Glasgow City Region Cabinet, said: “Chemify is a stand-out success story within our emerging innovation economy, one that's both enhancing Glasgow's reputation as an international centre of science and ingenuity while transforming the world of chemical production.”
Chemify’s customers and commercial partners include some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, promising biotechs and material science companies. One partnership that can be disclosed is a research collaboration supported by the Gates Foundation to discover new drug leads for treating tuberculosis (TB) and malaria.
Tuberculosis is a leading cause of death from infectious diseases globally, and the lack of effective treatment for drug-resistant strains of TB is a major barrier to solving this global health challenge. Chemify and its collaborator are working together to identify, design and synthesise chemical compounds that could act as medicines against TB.
The creation of spin-out companies is at the heart of the University’s Innovation Strategy (2022-25). In 2024, the University’s top six spin-outs raised investment of more than £60 million, creating 250 jobs across a range of commercial and spin-out activity, and awarded more than £600,000 to 23 projects with commercial or spin-out potential as part of major funding drives in Medtech and the Arts and Humanities.
The University is also working with its partners Scottish Enterprise and Glasgow City Council to deliver jobs, training opportunities and economic growth through Glasgow Riverside Innovation District.
Caption: Chemify CEO and founder Prof Lee Cronin (pictured 3rdf from right) with senior company officials and invited guests at the opening of Chemify's first Chemifarm facility in Maryhill, Glasgow, 20 June 2025
First published: 20 June 2025
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