Glasgow-based, chemistry-focused tech firm DeepMatter snaps up French peer

Glasgow-based digital chemistry data and software company DeepMatter Group has acquired a French contemporary in a deal worth up to £420,000, saying this will enable it to reach into new customer segments.

Aim-quoted DeepMatter has swooped on ChemIntelligence, saying the latter uses artificial intelligence (AI) to develop chemical products and reactions faster, and is based in Lyon, a city “known as a digital centre and its strong links to France’s Chemistry Valley”.

It added that ChemIntelligence, which last year made a pre-tax profit of €20,000 (£17,000) on turnover of €120,000 and had assets of the same latter amount at December 31, enables the prediction of the properties of molecules, materials and formulations, suggesting the most relevant experiments to perform in a secure, certified end-to-end cloud environment.

The Scottish firm added that the acquisition brings intellectual property and expertise that complements its chemical reaction data, data collection platform and AI capabilities, as well as broadening its technical expertise in chemical formulation, enabling it to expand its offering and address a broader customer base.

DeepMatter chief executive Mark Warne said: “The ChemIntelligence team bring considerable expertise, which will strengthen our data and AI capabilities with our current customers. It will also allow us to reach into new customer segments.

“Our vision is to combine our proprietary chemistry data with proprietary algorithms in order to transform how medicines and other chemical molecules are made, significantly improving productivity, discovery and sustainability in the field of chemistry.”

The maximum value that DeepMatter will pay for ChemIntelligence is £420,000, and the consideration will be payable in three tranches. The deal includes an application being made to London Stock Exchange plc for 23,333,334 initial consideration shares to be admitted to trading on Aim, and DeepMatter will henceforth have a total of 4,033,230,615 ordinary shares in issue.

DeepMatter says the ChemIntelligence team brings 'considerable expertise, which will strengthen our data and AI capabilities with our current customers' (file image). Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto.

The firm last month flagged that it was set for a six-figure boost after extending its commercial relationship with a major global research publisher, while it previously reported that revenues for 2020 had increased to £1.3 million from £1.2m in 2019, while its loss for the year narrowed to £2.4m from £3m.