Drug shortages are worsening globally, despite billions spent on pharmaceutical R&D. Redwood AI believes outdated chemistry workflows are to blame—and they’re using artificial intelligence to fix it.
Now, the Vancouver-based startup has been named a finalist for the Company of the Year – Startup award at the 2025 BC Tech Technology Impact Awards (TIAs), a nod to its ambitious mission to revolutionize drug manufacturing.
“At a time when more therapies are being developed than ever, this manual synthesis review creates such a bottleneck in drug development,” says Louis Dron, CEO of Redwood AI. “We’re bringing automation and intelligence to an outdated process.”
The Vancouver-based startup has built its own proprietary AI models from the ground up—designed specifically to understand chemistry. Their platform can generate multiple synthetic routes to produce therapeutic molecules and incorporate critical factors such as cost, safety, and supply chain constraints.
“By combining AI models, we achieve extraordinarily high prediction accuracy,” says Dron. “It’s a game-changer for everyone from academic researchers to biopharma manufacturers.”
Since launching, Redwood AI has seen remarkable traction. The company is wrapping up an oversubscribed funding round, has improved its model accuracy from the low 70s to the high 90s, and is working with a growing list of academic and industry partners. The team, including advisors, now numbers more than 10.
Still, the path hasn’t been without obstacles.
“Training AI models from scratch is a profoundly challenging task,” says Dron. “With over one billion chemicals in our dataset, we had to rely on the intuition of our chemistry and drug development experts as much as engineering. But the breakthroughs came when we began using own our AI models to verify model outputs.”
Dron credits British Columbia’s emerging strengths in both biotech and AI as key to Redwood’s growth.
“BC is an emerging powerhouse. It may not be as established as conventional tech and pharma hubs, but we’ve found incredible early adopters and an excellent support network—especially through BC Tech and Life Sciences BC,” he says. “Being on the west coast also gives us access to exceptional talent, with our advisory network including individuals from institutions such as Stanford.”
For Redwood AI, being named a Startup of the Year finalist is both a validation and an inspiration.
“We’re thrilled to see the spotlight on the amazing tech talent in this province,” says Dron. “This year’s finalists reflect the rise of multidisciplinary tech in BC. It’s an exciting time to be building here.”
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