Manchester Spinout Imperagen Raises £5M in Seed Funding to Deploy Quantum Physics, AI Modelling and Automated Labs for Enzyme Engineering
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Insider Brief Imperagen has raised £5 million in seed funding to expand a platform that combines quantum physics, AI and robotics to accelerate enzyme engineering, with the round led by PXN Ventures and joined by IQ Capital and Northern Gritstone. The company uses quantum-based simulations to model millions of potential enzyme mutations before training AI systems on the most promising candidates, creating a feedback loop that blends physics-based prediction with real-world laboratory testing. Imperagen said its approach is designed to move beyond trial-and-error methods by using quantum modeling to improve prediction accuracy, with commercial projects already showing enzyme productivity gains of more than 500 times after repeated optimization cycles. Imperagen has raised £5 million in seed funding to expand its enzyme engineering platform driven by quantum physics and artificial intelligence. The funding was led by PXN Ventures, with participation from existing investors IQ Capital and Northern Gritstonebrings, bringing the company’s total capital raised to £8.5 million, according to the company. Imperagen said the funding will be used to expand its R&D platform, scale laboratory operations, grow its AI team and support commercial expansion across sectors including pharmaceuticals, life sciences, personal care and industrial biotechnology over the next 18 months. What does Imperagen Do? Imperagen is focused on speeding up enzyme engineering, a process used across industries ranging from pharmaceutical manufacturing and personal care products to sustainable chemicals and industrial biotechnology. Enzymes act as biological catalysts that can help reduce waste, lower energy use and cut production costs. But designing enzymes for real-world use is often slow, expensive and difficult. Traditional approaches rely heavily on trial-and-error testing, while newer AI-based methods can struggle to perform reliably outside controlled environments, the company pointed out. To address that challenge, Imperagen developed a system combining quantum physics simulations, AI and automated robotics in a continuous feedback loop. The company said the process begins by using quantum-based modeling to simulate millions of possible enzyme mutations and predict how they might behave. Those predictions are then used to train AI models built around specific engineering problems rather than broader general-purpose systems. Automated robotics systems then test the most promising candidates in the lab and feed the results back into the model, allowing the system to improve over time. Each round of testing helps narrow the search and improve future predictions, Imperagen noted. Rather than treating experiments as isolated events, the platform continuously learns from physical lab results and refines its recommendations with each cycle. CEO Appointed The company also announced the appointment of Guy Levy-Yurista as CEO. Levy-Yurista previously led and scaled technology and life sciences companies in both Europe and the U.S., and joins as Imperagen moves into its next phase of commercialization. “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,” Levy-Yurista noted in the announcement. “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.” The system has already been used in commercial projects, including work with a Fortune 500 personal care company developing a new product line. In one example, the company said its platform improved the productivity of two enzymes by 677 times and 572 times, respectively, after five rounds of optimization. A University of Manchester‘s Manchester Institute of Biotechnology spinout, Imperagen was founded in November 2021 by Dr. Andrew Almond, Dr. Andrew Currin and Dr. Tim Eyes.
Greg Bock LinkedIn Greg Bock is an award-winning investigative journalist with more than 25 years of experience in print, digital, and broadcast news. His reporting has spanned crime, politics, business and technology, earning multiple Keystone Awards and a Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters honors. Through the Associated Press and Nexstar Media Group, his coverage has reached audiences across the United States. Share this article: