2025年四季度制药生物工具风险投资趋势（英）

EMERGING TECH RESEARCH Pharma BiotoolsVC Trends VC activity across the pharma biotools ecosystem The full report is availablethrough the PitchBook Platform. Contents Quarterly analysis4 Institutional Research Group Key takeaways4 Ben ZercherSenior Research Analyst, Biotech & Pharmaben.zercher@pitchbook.com VC activity pbinstitutionalresearch@pitchbook.com Key VC deals Published on February 24, 2026 VC exit activity AI themes Pharma biotools VC deal summary24 Pharma biotoolslandscape AdvancedEmergingMature Quarterly analysis Key takeaways •Pharma biotools’ 2025 rebound was driven by a recalibration to asset-light business models thatleverage recurring revenue and faster paths to commercialization. •Top-heavy early-stage investment is increasingly concentrated in the “scientific stack,” whereAI-native platforms are integrating robotics and high-fidelity data generation to transformdrug discovery. •Exit activity remains subdued, in part due to the industry’s uneven maturity as focus shifts to morenascent AI platforms. VC activity The pharma biotools industry comprises services and technologies that support drug discovery,biopharmaceutical manufacturing, and clinical development. This sector has evolved alongside thepharmaceutical industry it supports, which has transitioned from traditional organic synthesis forsmall-molecule development to increasingly complex biologics-driven workflows. Companies in thepharma biotools sector enable these workflows by providing specialized tools, platforms, and servicesacross protein engineering, cell line development, analytical characterization, process development,and quality control. These capabilities are critical to developing, manufacturing, and scaling complexbiologics such as monoclonal antibodies, cell and gene therapies, and other advanced modalities. Theadvent of AI has further transformed the sector, as service and technology providers increasingly focuson generating, standardizing, and integrating high-quality biological and chemical datasets to train andvalidate AI models for drug discovery, development, and manufacturing optimization. These dynamics drove a rebound in pharma biotools VC activity in 2025 after three consecutiveyears of contraction as investors recalibrated risk toward enabling technologies. Deal value improvedmodestly, rising 16% YoY, while deal counts increased more meaningfully, with more than 200 additionalfinancings completed in 2025. The underlying deal mix by stage tells a contrasting story relative to theadjacent biopharma industry, as seed- and early-stage funding continue to account for a significantshare of pharma biotools VC activity. Robust early-stage investment in pharma biotools can be tracedto the emergence of more asset-light business models and a faster path to revenue generation. Manycompanies can commercialize tools, services, or recurring software offerings without navigating theprolonged regulatory approval timelines required for therapeutic assets. Category-level trends can be assessed using PitchBook’s pharma biotools segmentation framework,which groups companies by their primary technology focus. Not surprisingly, deal value growthwas most concentrated in the generative AI & quantum computing category, mirroring broader AIinvestment trends and reflecting investor preference for outsourced, software-like models embeddedin drug discovery workflows. Other notable growth areas were microfluidics and synthetic biologycategories, which continue to benefit from demand for higher-throughput experimentation andimproved biological system control to integrate wet-lab execution with computational design. VC funding in pharma biotools totaled $1.6 billion across 93 deals in Q4 2025. Q4 funding levels werebroadly in line with average quarterly funding seen earlier in 2025, although deal counts declinedmeaningfully from the record activity observed in Q1. Q4 deal counts appear to have stabilized, aligningmore closely with the consistent baseline of activity established from mid-2022 through Q4 2024.Together, these trends suggest a normalization of quarterly pharma biotools VC activity rather than arenewed contraction. The sharp increase in pharma biotools VC deal count from 2024 to 2025 was driven in part by therapid uptake of AI across the sector. PitchBook Platform searches indicate that companies leveragingAI collectively recorded 182 deals in 2025, up roughly 70% from 107 deals in 2024. While not allthese companies are classified primarily as AI-native, the data demonstrates how AI capabilities areincreasingly embedded across subsegments. In this sense, AI is a key source of differentiation and ameaningful driver of new company formation and financing activity. First financings data reinforces this broader trend. In 2025, first-time financings of pharma biotoolscompanies reversed course sharply, with the three-quarter rolling average rising across consecutivequarters and ultimately surpassing its pande