UK’s LabGenius secures €40.9M led by Amsterdam's M Ventures to advance its drug discovery platform
Summary
New investors joining the round include Octopus Ventures and LG Corp, along with existing investors Atomico, Kindred Capital, Lux Capital, and Obvious Ventures.Oliver Hardick of M Ventures and Oliver Sims of Octopus Ventures have joined existing Directors Irina Haivas of Atomico, Leila Zegna of Kindred Capital, James Field (CEO) and Edwin Moses (Independent Chair) to form LabGenius new Board of Directors.LabGenius is a drug discovery company developing next-generation therapeutic antibodies. Its discovery platform, EVA, integrates technologies from artificial intelligence, robotic automation, and synthetic biology.The company operates under a hybrid business model, partnering with large biotech and pharmaceutical companies while simultaneously developing its own therapeutic pipeline.EVA is a smart robotic platform capable of designing, conducting, and learning from experiments autonomously. This closed-loop discovery engine enables rapid identification of high-performing antibodies with non-intuitive designs.The company is using its platform to tackle the challenge of on-target, off-tumour toxicity in its wholly-owned pipeline.LabGenius mentions in a statement that therapeutic antibodies work by binding to surface markers on diseased cells, which are present at higher levels. Over several years, the LabGenius team has pioneered the development of EVA a discovery platform thats capable of systematically identifying novel high-performing multispecific antibodies with non-intuitive designs.I am inspired by the relentless drive that our team has shown in getting us to this important milestone and look forward to working with our investors as we accelerate the development of both our platform and pipeline.Brief about M Ventures and Octopus VenturesAmsterdams M Ventures is the strategic, corporate VC fund of Merck. The firm focuses on financing novel solutions, creating companies, and making equity investments to drive Mercks vitality and sustainability.Octopus Ventures is a venture capital investor in the UK and Europe that backs entrepreneurs and transformative ideas across seven sectors, B2B software, climate tech, consumer tech, deeptech, fintech, biotech and health.With a portfolio of over 180 businesses, including Zoopla and Depop, the firm invests from early-stage ideas to later growth stages, providing capital, expertise, and partnership.