Imperagen, a Manchester-based techbio company developing AI and quantum physics-powered enzyme engineering technology, has raised £5 million in seed funding led by PXN Ventures, with participation from IQ Capital and Northern Gritstone. The funding brings the company’s total raised to £8.5 million and will support platform development, wet lab expansion and commercial growth.
AI and Quantum Physics for Faster Biocatalysis
Imperagen combines quantum simulations, AI models and automated robotics in a closed-loop platform designed to accelerate enzyme engineering. The system simulates millions of enzyme mutations, trains specialised AI models on predicted outcomes and validates top-performing variants through automated lab testing. Experimental results continuously feed back into the platform, improving accuracy and speeding up future iterations.
The platform has already been used in projects with major enterprise customers, including a Fortune 500 personal care company. In one case, Imperagen improved the productivity of two enzymes by 677x and 572x within five testing rounds.
New CEO to Lead Growth Phase
Alongside the funding round, Guy Levy-Yurista, PhD, has joined Imperagen as CEO. The technology and life sciences executive previously led multiple deeptech businesses across Europe and the US.
Dr. Levy-Yurista said: "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. 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."
Expansion Across Biotech and Life Sciences
The new funding will help Imperagen expand research and development, scale wet lab operations, grow its in-house AI team and strengthen go-to-market activities across pharmaceuticals, personal care, industrial biotech and sustainable chemicals.
Imperagen was founded in 2021 by Dr. Andrew Almond, Dr. Andrew Currin and Dr. Tim Eyes from the University of Manchester’s Manchester Institute of Biotechnology.