Protein production company Nuclera has raised a $75 million Series C to continue to bring its manufacturing platform to market next January after a soft launch in May.
“This is a perfect time to start thinking about making proteins because you just saw the Nobel Prize with David Baker and DeepMind. That increases the demand for making proteins,” CEO Michael Chen told Endpoints News in an interview.
Nuclera has developed a microwave-sized platform, dubbed eProtein Discovery, that can be used to make proteins for discovery and research. According to the company, it can make proteins in 48 hours, compared to other traditional methods like liquid handling, which can take months or years.
The platform can make around 192 different proteins at a cost of about $1,000, a fraction of the price compared to the “hundreds of thousands” that other protein production processes cost, Chen said. Also, since the platform is automated, all it requires is a scientist to just pipette ingredients into vials, he added.
The Series C was led by venture capital firm Elevage Medical Technologies, which was launched by investment firm Patient Square Capital in May 2023. At least 10 other companies and independent investors participated in the round. Nuclera raised a $42.5 million Series B in February 2022, after raising a $12 million Series A in 2018.
Nuclera was founded by four PhD students, including Chen, from the University of Cambridge, UK in 2013 and has offices in Cambridge, UK, and Boston. The company currently employs around 100 staffers.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to correct that the product had a soft launch in May, and that Nuclera’s office is in Boston and not Cambridge, MA.