New cash takes Nuclera Series B to $58m

Cambridge biotech Nuclera has raised an extra $15.5 million in Series B financing to bring the haul to $58m. 

Nuclera will use the additional investments from Cambridge serial entrepreneur Jonathan Milner and Swiss-based global operator Verve Ventures to accelerate the commercial launch of its eProtein™ desktop bioprinter. 

Nuclera has now raised a total of $83.3m from investors including M&G, Amadeus Capital Partners, E Ink, RT Partners, Future Planet Capital, British Business Bank Future Fund, and G. K. Goh. 

With this new round Nuclera will look to further its mission of making biology accessible. Historically, developing proteins has been a time-consuming and complex process – taking weeks, months, or even years for a scientist to obtain the required amount of protein samples. 

Nuclera’s eProtein™ bioprinter combines cell-free protein synthesis and digital microfluidics to create a novel technology platform that solves this problem within 24 hours – revolutionising the fragmented protein expression screening system into a single optimised, end-to-end workflow for drug discovery and general bio-innovation.  

Jonathan Milner, founder and former CEO of Abcam, Inc and CEO of Meltwind Advisory, said: “Rapid biomanufacturing for proteins doesn’t exist today. The ability to screen multiple protein expression profiles and print purified proteins in 24 hours will revolutionise laboratory workflows and make a demonstrable impact in terms of time to publish in academia and drug discovery timelines.  The days of screening a single protein expression profile at a time are coming to an end with this technology.”  

Nuclera is excited to continue their preparation for successful commercial launch and will use the funds to support this work. In the near-term, it will further expand personnel across key functions to accelerate through the pre-commercial phase and bring their innovative technology to market. 

The company is currently in the process of conducting alpha testing with select, key customers to gather market intelligence and shape the full commercial launch. 

Co-founder and Nuclera CEO Michael Chen said: “We’re delighted by the continued support from our existing investors and to have the opportunity to bring on several new strategic partners with our recent Series B raise.

“With their support, we are quickly scaling all functions from R & D through to our commercial team. I’m thrilled to advance our mission of making proteins accessible and continue on our journey to deliver our game-changing technology to the market.”

• PHOTOGRAPH: Nuclera’s eProtein Desktop Bioprinter. Photograph courtesy of Nuclera.