Enzymes quietly power many of the world’s most important industries, from pharmaceutical manufacturing and sustainable chemicals to personal care and industrial production. These biological catalysts help companies reduce waste, lower energy consumption, and improve manufacturing efficiency. Yet designing enzymes that work effectively in real industrial environments remains one of biotechnology’s most difficult and time consuming challenges. Manchester based techbio company Imperagen is developing a new approach that combines quantum simulation, artificial intelligence, and automated robotics to dramatically accelerate enzyme engineering, and the company has now secured fresh funding to scale its platform.
Imperagen has closed a £5 million seed funding round led by PXN Ventures with participation from existing investors IQ Capital and Northern Gritstone.
The funding will support expansion of the company’s research platform, laboratory operations, and AI development capabilities.
Reimagining Enzyme Engineering
Established in 2021 by researchers from the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, Imperagen focuses on accelerating how enzymes are engineered for commercial and industrial use.
Traditional enzyme engineering methods typically rely on manual screening processes where researchers test large numbers of potential mutations in laboratory environments. These approaches are often expensive, slow, and produce relatively low success rates.
More recently, zero shot AI design systems have emerged promising faster enzyme development, but many struggle when applied under real world industrial conditions.
Imperagen believes the solution requires combining advanced simulation, AI modelling, and experimental feedback into a continuously improving system.
Combining Quantum Physics, AI, and Robotics
At the core of Imperagen’s platform is a closed loop system integrating three separate technological layers.
First, quantum physics simulations model millions of potential mutation combinations digitally, generating extensive datasets predicting enzyme properties and performance.
Those datasets are then used to train problem specific AI models designed around particular engineering challenges rather than relying on general purpose machine learning systems.
Finally, automated robotics platforms physically test the most promising enzyme candidates inside laboratory environments.
The resulting experimental data is fed directly back into the AI models, allowing the system to continuously improve through iterative learning cycles.
According to the company, this recursive feedback process helps narrow in on high performing enzyme variants more efficiently with each experimental round.
Significant Performance Improvements
Imperagen says its AI guided platform has already demonstrated substantial productivity gains during testing.
The company reported improving the productivity of two separate enzymes by 677 times and 572 times respectively within just five rounds of optimisation.
The startup believes this recursive and self improving approach represents the future of industrial biocatalysis, allowing companies to redesign chemical reactions faster and more efficiently than traditional enzyme engineering methods.
Applications for these systems span pharmaceuticals, life sciences, sustainable chemicals, personal care products, and broader industrial biotechnology markets.
New Leadership to Scale Commercial Growth
Coinciding with the funding round, Guy Levy Yurista has joined the company as CEO.
Levy Yurista brings experience scaling technology and life sciences businesses across both Europe and the United States, including multiple successful exits.
He said companies likely to create major impact in the emerging AI driven economy will combine AI native infrastructure, real world data, deep technology, and strong commercial applications.
According to Levy Yurista, Imperagen’s combination of scientific expertise, AI capabilities, and biotechnology infrastructure positioned it as a particularly compelling company to lead during its next phase of growth.
Expanding Research and Commercial Operations
Imperagen has already worked on multiple commercial projects, including collaborations with a Fortune 500 personal care company developing a new product line.
The newly raised funding will support expansion of the company’s core research and development platform, scaling of wet lab operations, and growth of its internal AI teams, including both human researchers and agentic AI systems.
The company also plans to invest in commercial operations to convert increasing industry interest into contracted revenue across its target markets.
As industries increasingly seek sustainable and efficient production methods, companies capable of accelerating biological engineering through AI driven experimentation are becoming an increasingly important part of the future industrial biotechnology ecosystem.
