Imperagen secures £5M for quantum and AI enzyme engineering
▼ Summary
– Imperagen announced a £5 million seed round led by PXN Ventures, with participation from IQ Capital and Northern Gritstone, and was founded in 2021 by scientists from the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology.
– The startup aims to improve enzyme engineering by using a quantum physics-based simulation to predict enzyme variants on a computer, replacing slower trial-and-error lab methods.
– Imperagen combines quantum physics modeling, custom AI models, and closed-loop automation with robots to generate and feed experimental data back into its AI system.
– Enzymes are critical in pharmaceuticals, food, biofuels, and agriculture, and faster enzyme engineering could accelerate drug discovery and make industrial production more sustainable.
– Guy Levy-Yurista was appointed CEO to build a vertical AI infrastructure for biocatalysis, and the £8.5 million total funding will be used for hiring, R&D, lab expansion, and go-to-market efforts.
Biotech startup Imperagen has announced a £5 million ($6.7 million) seed funding round, led by PXN Ventures with contributions from IQ Capital and Northern Gritstone. Founded in 2021 by scientists Dr. Andrew Currin, Dr. Tim Eyes, and Dr. Andy Almond from the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, the company was spun out of the University of Manchester.
Imperagen is on a mission to transform enzyme engineering by making it faster, more efficient, and far less expensive than traditional methods, which rely heavily on slow, physical trial and error. The startup is leveraging three core technologies to achieve this shift. First, it uses quantum physics-based simulations to predict how enzyme variants will behave on a computer, exploring millions of mutations without ever entering a lab. This data is then fed into custom AI models trained specifically on the enzyme challenges Imperagen targets. Finally, the company employs robots and automation to generate experimental data, which loops back to refine the AI in a process called closed-loop simulation.
Enzymes play a critical role in industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to food, biofuels, and agriculture. By accelerating enzyme engineering, companies like Imperagen aim to create a domino effect, speeding up drug discovery and making industrial production more sustainable. Other players in this space include Biomatter, Cradle Bio, and Absci.
Alongside the funding round, Imperagen announced that Guy Levy-Yurista will take over as CEO. He told TechCrunch that current enzyme engineering methods are falling short, with many AI-powered solutions passing lab tests but failing at industrial scale. Imperagen’s technology, he explained, is designed to make enzyme development “faster, more reliable, and more commercially accessible, helping companies bring better bio-based products to market without the long timelines and uncertainty that have traditionally held the field back.”
Levy-Yurista brings a background in AI, life sciences, and enterprise technology. While the founders remain with the company, he was brought in to build out a vertical AI infrastructure for biocatalysis, scale the startup’s AI strategy, and develop commercial models and industrial partnerships.
To date, Imperagen has raised £8.5 million ($11.42 million). The fresh capital will go toward hiring more AI specialists, expanding research and development, enhancing lab capabilities, and building a go-to-market function over the next two years. Levy-Yurista added, “Ultimately, Imperagen hopes wider use of engineered enzymes will help industries reliably produce products that are cleaner, safer and better for people and the planet, while also making commercial sense for the companies that adopt them.”
(Source: TechCrunch)
