The New York manufacturer of paillass robots, present with 11,000 machines in more than 80 countries, loops an E series led by Avego to accelerate "self-sustaining science".
Opentrons, which has been designing open lab robots since 2014, announces a $40 million Series E led by Avego, a healthcare investor, with BroadOak Capital Partners and its existing shareholders SoftBank Vision Fund and Khosla Ventures. No valuation was disclosed. The company claims to have more than 11,000 robots installed in more than 80 countries, in the vast majority of the world's top twenty pharmaceutical companies and in major American research universities.
The physical laboratory, a new bottleneck
Opentrons' bet is based on an observation: AI models propose hypotheses and design experiments much faster than teams can take them to the bench. Its Flex platform combines pipetting robots and software so that an AI system can launch, execute and adjust protocols in a loop itself. The funds will be used to expand the capabilities of robots and instruments, accelerate the development of software-based protocols, strengthen data infrastructure and enter new markets.
CEO James Atwood believes that freeing researchers from repetitive manual gestures is the greatest opportunity in the scientific sector; for Avego, any AI discovery must sooner or later pass the test of a real laboratory, and pharmaceutical companies and AI companies alike are converging on automated workflows.
Read the full article on the original source
Go to the source →