Imperagen, a Manchester-based BioTech company using AI and quantum physics to engineer better enzymes faster, has closed €5.7 million (£5 million) in Seed funding to accelerate R&D, expand its wet lab capabilities, and build out its go-to-market function over the next 18 months.
The round was led by PXN Ventures with participation from Imperagen’s existing investors, IQ Capital and Northern Gritstone. This brings the company’s total funding to €9.8 million (£8.5 million). Additionally, Guy Levy-Yurista, PhD, joins as the new CEO. Dr Levy-Yurista is a seasoned technology and life sciences executive with two exits across the US and Europe.
Dr Levy-Yurista said, “What I see right now is that the companies that will make a radical difference in this emerging AI-driven future are all AI-native, lean on real-world data, have genuine impact, and are fundamentally deep tech. Imperagen has each of those characteristics, combining them with outstanding people, phenomenal technology and the undeniable swagger you only get from Manchester. It was a no-brainer to join the team and lead this next stage in its growth.”
Imperagen, a spin-out of the University of Manchester, was founded in November 2021 by Dr Andrew Almond, Dr Andrew Currin, and Dr Tim Eyes. The company claims to deliver the most improved and production-ready enzyme designs by rapidly retraining problem-specific AI models with real-world data, achieving significantly greater enzyme improvements in fewer cycles.
According to Imperagen, engineering an enzyme for practical application is a challenging and complex process. It explains that traditional methods depend on manual screening, which is slow, costly, and has a low hit rate. Recently, zero-shot techniques have promised smart designs but often underperform in real-world settings. Neither approach provides industrial clients with the predictability and speed necessary to reduce risks in large-scale product development.
Imperagen claims its proprietary platform combines three stages into a single closed-loop system. The company explained, “Quantum physics simulates millions of mutation combinations in silico, generating a dataset of predicted properties. Those outputs are used to train problem-specific AI models, not general-purpose ones, calibrated to the precise engineering challenge at hand. Automated robotics then test the highest-performing predictions in the physical lab, producing high-quality experimental data that feeds directly back into the AI model, so that it continuously evolves.”
The UK startup notes that this feedback loop is what sets the approach apart, with each round of experiments making the next round more targeted. The system learns from the wet lab as it goes, narrowing in on the highest-performing variants with each iteration. The result is a platform that gets smarter round by round.
The company serves diverse markets, ranging from pharmaceutical manufacturing and life sciences to sustainable fine chemical production and industrial applications. It has already worked on a number of significant projects, including with a Fortune 500 personal care company looking to launch a new product line. Imperagen reported that its AI-guided closed-loop system improved the productivity of two enzymes by 677x and 572x, respectively, in just five rounds.
Sim Singh-Landa, Investment Director at PXN, said, “The North West’s life sciences ecosystem is becoming stronger all the time and stands to gain from Imperagen’s local hiring and growth plans, building on the company’s connection to the University of Manchester’s Manchester Institute of Biotechnology.
“We’re excited to be supporting Imperagen with investment from both the GMC Life Sciences Fund and the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II as the company looks to scale success in enzyme engineering and deliver progress within the life sciences sector, which is one of the key sectors highlighted in the UK Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy.”
PXN invested via the GMC Life Sciences Fund By PXN Ventures, which it manages on behalf of the Bruntwood SciTech, Enterprise Cheshire + Warrington and Greater Manchester Combined Authority. Investment has also come from NPIF II – PXN Equity Finance, which is managed by PXN as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II (NPIF II).
The company plans to use this fresh capital to accelerate development of the core R&D platform, scale the wet lab operation, and grow the in-house AI team, both human and agentic. Imperagen will also invest in its go-to-market function to convert growing commercial interest into contracted revenue across its target sectors: pharmaceuticals, life sciences, personal care, sustainable fine chemicals, and industrial BioTech.
Source: EU-Startups
