Imperagen, a University of Manchester spin-out, has secured £5 million to advance its enzyme engineering platform powered by a combination of quantum physics, artificial intelligence, and laboratory automation. The seed funding round, led by PXN Ventures, brings the company’s total investment to £8.5 million and will fund expansion of its research and development efforts over the next 18 months. Imperagen’s closed-loop system has already demonstrated substantial gains, achieving over 500 times improvements in enzyme performance in a project with a Fortune 500 personal care company. With the arrival of Guy Levy-Yurista, PhD, as CEO, an executive with a track record of two successful exits, the company aims to deliver the future of biocatalysis: a recursive, self-improving AI platform to help rewrite chemical reactions.
Quantum Physics & AI Drive Closed-Loop Enzyme Engineering
Over 500-fold improvements in enzyme performance are now achievable, as demonstrated by Imperagen, a University of Manchester spin-out leveraging a novel approach to enzyme engineering. The company integrates quantum physics, artificial intelligence modeling, and automated laboratory systems within a closed-loop framework, accelerating the development of enzymes for diverse industrial applications including pharmaceutical manufacturing and sustainable chemical production. Traditional enzyme engineering methods, reliant on manual screening or limited computational predictions, often prove slow and inefficient; Imperagen’s platform addresses these limitations by creating a continuously refining system. The core of Imperagen’s technology lies in its three-stage process, beginning with quantum physics simulations that explore millions of potential mutation combinations in silico. These simulations generate data used to train specialized AI models, tailored to specific engineering challenges, rather than relying on general-purpose algorithms.
Automated robotics then physically tests the most promising predictions, generating experimental data that is immediately fed back into the AI model, allowing it to learn and improve with each iteration. With a total of £8.5 million in funding secured, including the recent £5 million seed round led by PXN Ventures, Imperagen is expanding its operations. The investment will fund both research and development, specifically scaling the company’s wet lab capabilities and expanding its in-house AI team. New CEO Guy Levy-Yurista, PhD, brings extensive experience in scaling deep tech businesses, having overseen two successful exits in both the US and Europe; he stated 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.” He added, “Imperagen has each of those characteristics.”
Imperagen Secures £5 Million Seed Funding Led by PXN Ventures
This latest round brings the total funding to £8.5 million, earmarked for accelerating research and development, expanding wet lab capacity, and establishing a commercial pathway over the next 18 months. The company’s approach differs from traditional enzyme engineering, which relies on slow and costly manual screening or often-unreliable computational predictions, by employing a closed-loop system designed for speed and predictability. Levy-Yurista explained that “Imperagen has each of those characteristics, combining them with outstanding people, phenomenal technology and the undeniable energy of Manchester.” Sim Singh-Landa, Investment Director at PXN, highlighted the regional impact, noting that the company’s growth will build on its connection to the University of Manchester’s Manchester Institute of Biotechnology and contribute to the strengthening life sciences ecosystem in the North West.
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.
Sim Singh-Landa, Investment Director at PXN
500x-677x Enzyme Performance Gains with Automated Wet Lab System
£5 million is being invested. The core of Imperagen’s approach lies in a closed-loop system designed to overcome the limitations of traditional enzyme engineering methods, which often rely on slow, expensive manual screening or computationally promising but ultimately unreliable designs. The company’s platform begins with quantum physics simulations, exploring millions of mutation combinations in silico to predict enzyme properties. Levy-Yurista noted that the company’s AI-guided system delivered productivity improvements of 677 times and 572 times for two enzymes in just five experimental rounds, highlighting the potential for rapid optimization and de-risking of product development.
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.
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