Biomatter raises US$18 million and plans enzyme design facility in Vilnius
Astanor led the Series A round, with existing investors also participating. The planned 2,000-square-metre facility is scheduled to open in 2027.
Custom enzyme developer Biomatter has secured US$18 million in Series A funding and plans to open a design and testing facility in Vilnius in 2027. Astanor led the oversubscribed round, joined by returning investors UVC Partners, Inventure and Metaplanet.
Biomatter says the planned 2,000-square-metre facility will allow it to handle more development and testing internally. It aims to shorten enzyme development from weeks to days. The company also plans to grow its commercial team and US presence while developing its computational platform and proprietary enzyme dataset.
The company designs enzymes around the chemical requirements of a process, rather than adapting enzymes found in nature. It combines computational modelling with laboratory tests, using a dataset of experimentally characterised enzymes that grows with each development programme. Biomatter says its current process takes weeks, compared with months or years for conventional development.
Its enterprise customers in Europe, the United States and Japan include AstraZeneca, BASF, Sanofi and Tereos. Commercial applications include an enzyme developed with Thermo Fisher Scientific to improve stability in molecular biology and mRNA research.
Biomatter has also designed a methylase for manufacturing mRNA vaccines that does not require S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), a costly additive used by naturally occurring methylases.
