In June 2023, Flagship Pioneering, a USA-based biotech funder and incubator, said it had made an initial commitment of $50 million to support the development of Empress's platform and the company's initial pipeline of drug candidates.

Empress's proprietary Chemilogics product platform creates drugs by understanding how the genetic code programs cells in the human body to produce chemical compounds called metabolites, a rich source of potential small molecule medicines.

The company is initially focused on metabolites produced by commensal bacteria and uses a proprietary suite of computational and genetic technologies to create small molecule compounds with favorable drug properties. This approach systematically generates promising small molecule drug candidates at unprecedented speed. In less than two years, with a team of less than 30 people, Empress has generated 15 molecules, across multiple target classes, for multiple indications. The company expects to file multiple investigational new drug (IND) applications in the next 24 months.