RFAI merger with Nanyang Biologics

Nanyang Biologics (NYB) is a Singapore-based, AI-driven drug discovery and biotechnology company operating at the intersection of biodiversity and artificial intelligence. Founded in 2020 as a university spin-out from Nanyang Technological University Singapore (NTU), NYB has spent roughly five years developing a joint laboratory with NTU focused on tropical medicinal plants and their therapeutic potential. The company's flagship Vecura AI platform is powered by its proprietary Drug-Target Interaction Graph Neural Network (DTIGN), a structure-and-outcome-guided discovery model that applies graph neural networks and protein language models to predict how natural compounds interact with disease targets. In 2024, the DTIGN engine outperformed competitors by 27% in benchmarking tests published in IEEE, and it won first prize among over 700 startups at the SuperAI Genesis Startup Competition 2025 in Singapore. NYB is building what it believes will be one of the world's largest AI-curated natural compound libraries, already comprising over 50,000 unique organisms and their chemical compounds, and it has entered a memorandum of understanding with NVIDIA, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Equinix to provide scalable computing and sovereign digital infrastructure for large-scale molecular screening.

The company's therapeutic pipeline consists of five preclinical molecules derived from tropical medicinal plants, targeting high-unmet needs in oncology, cardiovascular health, and mental health. Its lead candidate, NB-A002, is a first-in-class DNA Damage Response (DDR) therapy targeting the previously undruggable ILF2 protein, inducing synthetic lethality in DDR and Homologous Recombination Deficiency cancers, including BRCA-mutated and BRCAness tumors. NYB positions NB-A002 as a potential superior alternative to PARP inhibitors for ovarian, breast, lung, and other solid tumors, addressing a market projected to reach $19.5 billion by the mid-2030s. Additional pipeline assets include NB-B101 for solid tumors, NB-C201 for cardiovascular health, and NB-C301 for mental health conditions, all progressing through preclinical stages with growing patent protection. The company also offers a consumer nutraceutical product line alongside its pharmaceutical pipeline.

NYB is led by Chairman Dr. Roland Ong, a serial entrepreneur, and Lead Principal Investigator Professor Li Hoi Yeung, who co-founded the joint laboratory initiative between NTU and NYB. The company's key investors include The9 Limited (Nasdaq: NCTY), which provided its first funding in 2020, Mercatus Capital (a Singapore-based family office), and the Ignition AI Accelerator. According to PitchBook, NYB has approximately 16 employees and has progressed through accelerator and clinical trial stages. The company has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report 2025, which ranked Singapore second worldwide for AI, and NYB has established strategic collaborations with major technology partners to build enterprise-grade infrastructure for healthcare innovation.

On October 2, 2025, NYB entered into a definitive business combination agreement with RF Acquisition Corp II (Nasdaq: RFAI), a Singapore-based SPAC targeting deep technology in Asia, in a transaction valuing NYB at approximately $1.5 billion pre-money equity value. The merger is expected to close in the first or second quarter of 2026, subject to shareholder approval, with the combined company to list on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "NYB." Existing shareholders, including The9 and Mercatus Capital, will roll over 100% of their equity and retain majority ownership and board control. NYB is pursuing the SPAC route to accelerate its AI-driven drug discovery efforts, with Chairman Ong stating that public listing will break through barriers that have long hindered medical advancement, significantly reduce R&D time and costs, and open new opportunities for therapeutic development. The SPAC's CEO, Tse Meng Ng, praised NYB for building a diffe [verified via Google + 425: Nanyang Biologics AI drug discovery, $1.5B]