In a game-changing move for the world of lab automation, London-based Automata has successfully raised $40 million in a strategic investment round. The initiative was spearheaded by Dimension and attracted participation from esteemed investors, including A.P. Moller Holding, the parent company of A.P. Moller Group, renowned for its laboratory testing arm, Unilabs. The round also witnessed the enthusiastic return of backers like Octopus Ventures, Hummingbird, Isomer Capital, Possible Ventures, and Aldea Ventures.
Automata is poised to wield this substantial investment to propel its rapid global expansion, specifically targeting the United States, the United Kingdom, and EMEA regions. Additionally, the company intends to bolster its talented team and place an unwavering focus on the burgeoning opportunities within the dynamic life sciences sector. This strategic move aims to fortify Automata's brand presence and recognition within the industry, firmly positioning it as a trailblazer in lab automation solutions.
Mostafa Elsayed, the Founder and CEO of Automata, expressed his excitement about the successful fundraise, especially in a challenging funding climate. He underscored the transformative potential of their lab automation platform and the remarkable progress made by their dedicated team. The funding infusion will allow them to further enhance their existing deployments and continue developing groundbreaking products that revolutionize scientists' interactions with their laboratories.
Nan Li, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Dimension, shed light on the modern lab's complexity, which necessitates precise coordination across a suite of lab instruments. He emphasized the importance of speed, reliability, reconfigurability, reproducibility, and scalability in lab automation. Automata's modular software and hardware LINQ system align perfectly with these needs, and Dimension is excited to partner with them to create a category-defining business in this field.
Chetan Mehta, Head of Growth Equity at A.P. Moller Holding, expressed delight in partnering with Automata. He lauded the company as a rising leader in the quest to modernize and automate the global life science industry. Automata's solutions enhance efficiency, lower costs, and accelerate innovation, enabling customers to push the boundaries of medical and life science research.
Founded in 2015 in London by Mostafa ElSayed and Suryansh Chandra, Automata is on a mission to empower life sciences to innovate, diagnose, and discover on a grand scale. The company specializes in providing robotic automation solutions for life science laboratories, facilitating rapid scaling and accelerated results. Automata's product portfolio includes human collaborative and arm-based lab automation robots, ideal for tasks such as drug screening, colony counting, and acid testing. The company also offers cloud-enabled robot management software for seamless protocol scheduling and orchestration.
Automata's LINQ automation platform is designed to make automation accessible to science labs across a wide spectrum of institutions, from research facilities and hospitals to pharmaceutical and biotech companies and Contract Research Organizations (CROs). Whether handling high-throughput workflows or dynamic protocol development, Automata's platform is adaptable to meet the needs of diverse labs.