London-based Automata Technologies, a biotech company that offers robotic automation solutions to life sciences labs, announced on Tuesday that it has secured $40M (approximately €38.2M) in a fresh round of funding.
Automata’s $40M funding came after the success of its $50M Series B round in January 2022. This funding has enabled the company to expand its commercialisation efforts, notably in Europe, the UK, and the US.
Automata claims to have experienced significant growth with a 150 per cent increase in revenue and a 12-fold rise in live system hours since its last funding round.
Investors supporting Automata
The investment was led by Dimension and included participation from A.P. Moller Holding, the parent company of the A.P. Moller Group. Existing investors Octopus Ventures, Hummingbird, Isomer Capital, Possible Ventures, and Aldea Ventures also contributed.
Nan Li, co-founder and Managing Partner of Dimension, says, “The modern lab is a data factory, requiring precise coordination across a suite of lab instruments juggling multiple protocol runs. As a result, the industry needs a lab automation system that is built with an emphasis on speed, reliability, reconfigurability, reproducibility, and scale.”
“Automata’s modular software and hardware LINQ system delivers just that and we’re thrilled to partner with them to build a category-defining business in this space,” adds Li.
Chetan Mehta, Head of Growth Equity of A.P. Moller Holding, adds, “Automata’s solutions help increase throughput, lower cost, and accelerate innovation allowing its customers to focus on pushing further into cutting edge medical and life science research.”
Automata aims to unlock human potential with automation
Automata claims to address the challenges faced by scientific organisations, including the need for speed and flexibility in experimentation, limited lab space, and retaining skilled staff.
The company’s LINQ automation platform is designed to be adopted by labs in research institutions, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, biotech companies, and CROs.
It accommodates both high throughput workflows and labs requiring frequent workflow changes, offering dynamic protocol development.
By providing adaptable automation solutions, Automata’s LINQ platform helps labs streamline processes and enhance efficiency in the face of evolving scientific demands.
Automata’s customers include NHS Trusts such as The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, academic institutions including The Francis Crick Institute, testing labs such as HSL, CDMOs and CROs, and pharma and biotech companies such as AstraZeneca and bit.bio.
How was Automata born?
Mostafa ElSayed and Suryansh Chandra (who left the firm in March, 2020), architects from Zaha Hadid’s research lab, initially explored robotics for architectural engineering applications. They found modern automation needlessly complex and innovation-restrictive not only in their field but across various industries.
Leveraging their computational research and design expertise, they founded Automata with a mission to enable innovation through simplified automation, bringing together a team of industry experts to make a meaningful difference.
Brief about Automata Technologies
Founded in 2015, Automata focuses on simplifying automation in the life sciences sector. Its technology enables rapid innovation, diagnosis, and discovery at scale, allowing scientists to shorten turnaround times, increase capacities, and dedicate more time to analysis.
Automata’s systems have been deployed in NHS pathology labs, addressing diagnostic backlogs and significantly enhancing lab capacity, with some labs running 40 automated stations 24/7.
The company reports that its Lab Automation platform empowers scientists, accelerates results translation, and enhances efficiencies for customers including NHS Trusts, academic institutions, Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisations (CDMOs), and pharmaceutical companies.
Automata’s LINQ automation platform offers a complete solution for labs, featuring software for workflow management, proprietary hardware enabling modular configurations and high throughputs, comprehensive data accessibility throughout experiments, and an OEM agnostic approach for seamless integration with various labs and equipment.
This platform empowers scientists, enhances efficiency, and promotes adaptability in lab automation.
Currently, Automata is based in London, UK, with operations also in Boston, US.
Capital utilisation
The raised capital will help Automata to accelerate its growth and presence across the US, UK and EMEA, as well as expand its team.
The company also looks to focus on opportunities in the global life sciences sector, aiming to enhance its brand recognition and industry presence.
Mostafa Elsayed, founder & CEO of Automata, says, “The last two years have been hugely exciting at Automata as we’ve seen LINQ increase the scale of customer workflows as well as meaningfully increasing their ability to generate high-quality data – accelerating their pace of discovery and experimentation.”
“Achieving a fundraise with exciting and experienced investors in a pretty challenging funding environment is a real endorsement of the potential and capabilities of our lab automation platform and the work the team has achieved.”
“The raise enables us to continue to focus on our existing and upcoming deployments as well as continuing to develop products that transform how scientists interact with their labs. Most importantly, it will help us to accelerate the impact our users are already having on people’s lives around the world,” adds Elsayed.
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