Imperagen raises £5M to transform enzyme engineering with quantum physics and AI modeling

Imperagen raises £5 million to use quantum physics, AI on enzyme engineering | TechCrunch

Biotech company Imperagen announced on Thursday a £5 million ($6.7 million) seed round led by PXN Ventures, with participation from IQ Capital and Northern Gritstone. The company was founded in 2021 by Manchester Institute of Biotechnology scientists Dr. Andrew Currin, Dr. Tim Eyes, and Dr. Andy Almond and spun out of the university. The startup seeks to improve enzyme engineering by making it faster, more efficient, and less costly than the slower, more physical, trial-and-error-focused process used now. Imperagen is using three core technologies as it seeks to redefine enzyme engineering. Specifically, it uses a quantum physics-based simulation instead of trial-and-error enzyme mutations in a lab. Imperagen predicts the behavior of enzyme variants on a computer using advanced quantum physics modeling that can explore millions of mutations, the company said. Then it translates this information into its custom AI models, trained on the enzyme problems Imperagen seeks to explore. Finally, to retain its AI models, Imperagen uses robots and automation to generate experimental data, which is fed back to the AI model, in a process called closed-loop simulation. Enzymes are incredibly important across many industries, especially in pharmaceuticals, as they are essential to drug development. Startups like Imperagen are hoping to speed up enzyme engineering because it can have a domino effect, making, for example, drug discovery faster and more efficient. Enzymes are also used in sectors like food, biofuels, and agriculture. Experts in sustainability are also looking to enzymes -- and the AI technologies surrounding them -- to make industrial production and manufacturing more sustainable. Others in this space include Biomatter, Cradle Bio, and Absci. On Thursday, Imperagen also announced that Guy Levy-Yurista will assume the role of CEO. Speaking to TechCrunch, he said that right now, the process of enzyme engineering is falling short, where even many new AI-powered technologies can pass trial and error but fail when put into practice on an industrial scale. Imperagen hopes its tech will make enzyme development "faster, more reliable, and more commercially accessible, helping companies bring better bio-based products to market without the long timelines and uncertainty that have traditionally held the field back," he told TechCrunch. Levy-Yurista has a background in AI, life sciences, and enterprise technology. Though the founders will remain at the company, Levy-Yurista was brought in to help build out its new technologies, including a vertical AI infrastructure for biocatalysis (a process that accelerates chemical reactions using natural catalysts like enzymes), while scaling the startup's AI strategy, commercial models, and industrial partnerships. The company has raised £8.5 million ($11.42 million) in funding to date and the fresh capital will be used to hire more AI specialists, put toward research and development, expand its experimental lab capabilities, and build a go-to-market function within the next two years. "Ultimately, Imperagen hopes wider use of engineered enzymes will help industries reliably produce products that are cleaner, safer and better for people and the planet, while also making commercial sense for the companies that adopt them," Levy-Yurista said.

University of Manchester Techbio Spin-Out Secures £5 Million to Deploy Quantum Physics, AI Modelling, and Highly Automated Labs to Power Next Gen Enzyme Engineering

* Round led by PXN Ventures, with additional funding from existing investors IQ Capital and Northern Gritstone Company uses quantum physics, AI modelling and deeply integrated laboratory automation and robotics in a closed loop system to engineer enzymes, transforming their performance for industries including pharmaceutical manufacturing, personal care and sustainable chemical production Work with a Fortune 500 personal care company delivering over 670x improvements in enzyme performance Guy Levy-Yurista joins as CEO to spearhead growth in closed loop AI-guided enzyme engineering MANCHESTER, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 21, 2026-- Imperagen, a Manchester-based techbio company using AI and quantum physics to engineer better enzymes faster, has closed a £5 million seed funding round led by PXN Ventures with participation from Imperagen's existing investors IQ Capital and Northern Gritstone. The raise brings Imperagen's total funding to £8.5 million and will accelerate research and development, expand its wet lab capabilities, and build out its go-to-market function over the next 18 months. Coinciding with the round Guy Levy-Yurista, PhD joins as CEO. An experienced technology and life sciences executive with two successful exits across the US and Europe, he brings a track record of scaling deep tech businesses from early stage to market leadership. Enzymes are biological catalysts used to reduce waste, lower energy usage and decrease overall production costs in everything from pharmaceutical manufacturing and personal care to sustainable chemical production. However, engineering an enzyme for practical application is a challenging and complex process. Traditional approaches rely on manual screening, a slow and expensive process with a low hit rate. More recently, zero-shot methods have promised smart designs but often fall short when deployed in real world conditions. Neither method gives industrial customers the predictability and speed they need to de-risk product development at scale. Imperagen's proprietary platform combines three stages into a single closed-loop system: That feedback loop is what sets the approach apart, with each round of experiments making the next round more targeted. The system learns from the wet lab as it goes, narrowing in on the highest-performing variants with each iteration. The result is a platform that gets smarter round by round. This is the future of biocatalysis, a recursive, self improving AI platform to help rewrite chemical reactions. The company has already worked on a number of significant projects, including with a Fortune 500 personal care company looking to launch a new product line. Imperagen's AI-guided closed loop system improved the productivity of two enzymes by 677x and 572x respectively in just five rounds. Commenting on the news, 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." The funds will be used to accelerate the core R&D platform, scale the wet lab operation, and grow the in-house AI team, both human and agentic. Imperagen will also invest in its go-to-market function to convert growing commercial interest into contracted revenue across its target sectors: pharmaceuticals, life sciences, personal care, sustainable fine chemicals, and industrial biotech. PXN invested via the GMC Life Sciences Fund By PXN Ventures, which it manages on behalf of the Bruntwood SciTech, Enterprise Cheshire + Warrington and Greater Manchester Combined Authority. Investment has also come from NPIF II - PXN Equity Finance, which is managed by PXN as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II (NPIF II). Sim Singh-Landa, Investment Director at PXN, said: "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. We're excited to be supporting Imperagen with investment from both the GMC Life Sciences Fund and the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II as the company looks to scale success in enzyme engineering and deliver progress within the life sciences sector, which is one of the key sectors highlighted in the UK Government's Modern Industrial Strategy." Imperagen was founded in November 2021 by Dr. Andrew Almond, Dr. Andrew Currin and Dr. Tim Eyes, all researchers from the University of Manchester's Manchester Institute of Biotechnology. About Imperagen Established in 2021 by researchers from the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, Imperagen is a pioneering techbio company, focused on accelerating the process of enzyme engineering. Serving diverse markets, from pharmaceutical manufacturing and life sciences to sustainable fine chemical production and industrial applications, we work hand-in-hand with our customers to de-risk and streamline their product development and fast track their path to market. We've raised £8.5 million, and our investors include PXN, IQ Capital and Northern Gritstone. About PXN Ventures PXN Ventures is the venture capital arm of PXN Group, formed following the merger of Praetura Ventures and Par Equity. With offices in Manchester, Edinburgh, Leeds and London, we deliver world-class investment programmes at scale to help build the Northern economy, supporting founders across a diverse range of sectors, including deep tech, life sciences and software. PXN Ventures is committed to backing early-stage founders across the North of the UK, with a long and growing list of northern success stories such as Modern Milkman, Phlo, AccessPay, Street Group and Advanced Electric Machines. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260521648121/en/