Lab Automation Startup Raises $40M

Automata Technologies, a U.K. startup automating science labs, has raised $40 million in an equity-based round of funding to fuel its expansion across European and U.S. markets.

Automata’s automation platform combines software and hardware to help organizations such as hospitals, research institutions and biotech companies more rapidly adopt automation tools to streamline tasks such as data collection and experimentation.

The latest funding round was led by Dimension, with participation from A.P. Moller Holding, parent company of the A.P. Moller Group. They join returning investors Octopus Ventures, Hummingbird, Isomer Capital, Possible Ventures and Aldea Ventures.

Automata said the funds will be used to fuel its “geographic and team expansion plans,” strengthening its stance in the global life sciences sector, with a particular focus on Europe and the U.K., as well as its more nascent standing in the U.S..

The company offers both hardware and software tools to users to automate various lab processes, with a specific focus on genomics and cell biology use cases. On the software side, Automata offers a cloud-based software, LINQ, on which users can design, schedule and run different workflows.

This is then combined with the company’s hardware, the robotic LINQ bench, which moves lab equipment, such as test tubes, across a benchtop. Additional robotic arms can be added to the setup to meet individual lab requirements. 

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Combined, the tools offer a single automation system that allows labs to gain a holistic view of a lab’s workflow and operations, responding to what Automata terms “increasingly inadequate software and infrastructure” for lab automation.

“The modern lab is a data factory, requiring precise coordination across a suite of lab instruments juggling multiple protocol runs,” said Nan Li, Dimension’s managing partner. “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.”

"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,” said Mostafa Elsayed, Automata’s CEO. “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.”

Current customers include AstraZeneca and The Francis Crick Institute, as well as NHS Trusts in the U.K.