Facts

• Segment: Lab Automation
• Country: China
• Founded: 2022
• Website: https://c12.ai/en

Profile sections

• Summary
• Market context
• Facts
• Funding
• Investors
• Context / Market Position
• Events
• Team
• Sources

Summary

C12. ai builds physical-AI scientist systems for laboratory automation. Its robots plan, execute and optimize real experiments, helping life-sciences and chemistry teams automate repetitive lab work while keeping scientists focused on research decisions.

Market context

C12. ai is a lab automation company with clear robotics relevance rather than a pure software drug discovery startup. Its importance comes from combining molecular AI with embodied execution inside real laboratory environments, giving it a stronger operational angle than companies focused only on computational discovery. ai develops AI-driven laboratory robotics for drug discovery, including robotic instrument operation, mobile manipulation in lab settings and experiment-execution workflows.

Facts

• Website: https://c12.ai/en
• HQ: Shanghai, China
• Founded: 2022
• Segment: Lab Automation
• Known funding rounds: 1

Funding

• 2026-03-12 - Venture round - $7M - C12.ai raises RMB 50M to advance Physical AI Scientists for drug discovery - source: c12.ai

Investors

• Weihao Chuangxin - Participant - Angel / Individual - 1 funding event - first seen 2026-03-12
• Yonghua Capital - Lead - Vc - 1 funding event - first seen 2026-03-12

AI laboratory robotics for molecular science

C12. ai develops AI-driven laboratory robotics for drug discovery and molecular-science workflows, including robotic instrument operation in existing lab environments.

• Target environment: Wet labs, drug-discovery facilities and molecular-science workflows where experiments need physical execution as well as computational design.
• Deployment model: Robotics-plus-AI lab automation model built around mobile operation of existing instruments and closed-loop experiment workflows.
• Customer context: Biotech, pharma and research labs seeking higher-throughput physical experimentation without rebuilding the entire lab around fixed automation.
• Workflow context: The system connects molecular AI, robotic lab execution, sensing and analysis so experiments can move from design to physical run to result.
• Commercial maturity: Developing company with a clear robotics workflow and a defined Talos lab-robotics surface.
• Market position: Positioned as embodied lab automation rather than pure computational drug discovery.
• Adoption constraints: Adoption depends on lab safety, instrument compatibility, protocol coverage, validation burden and integration with existing LIMS/data workflows.
• Adjacent context: Adjacent systems include lab mobile manipulators, automated liquid-handling cells, scientific AI platforms and closed-loop experimentation systems.
• Source confidence: high

Events

• 2026-03-12 - Funding - C12.ai raises RMB 50M to advance Physical AI Scientists for drug discovery - C12.ai raised RMB 50M in a round led by Yonghua Capital, with participation from Weihao Chuangxin and individual invest…

Team

• Chen Zhigang - Founder & CEO