Laboratory automation tech provider Automata has expanded into the United States.
Life sciences are leading the most important scientific revolution since the arrival of computing, accounting for approximately 7% of all US economic activity – with the global life sciences tools market alone estimated at $102 billion in 2021.
There is also a step change in health outcomes due to innovations in diagnostic and therapeutic modalities. This is happening in pharma, BioTechs, CROs, CDMOs, hospitals and diagnostic organisations – all of which have labs at their core.
These labs are extremely inefficient, manually intensive and facing fundamental challenges to scale, says Automata. More than a third of all life sciences companies are headquartered in the US.
The company claims its hardware and software accelerates workflows in pharmaceutical and BioTech companies, academic institutes, core testing labs and contract development and manufacturing.
“The lab of the future is an automated one, where scientists have the capacity to work on innovative research, while automated systems effectively and efficiently carry out routine tasks,” said Mostafa ElSayed, co-founder and CEO.
“There is a huge need within the US life sciences industry to adopt automation to increase efficiencies, reduce human error and to allow scientists to focus on more strategic work; particularly in areas such as genomics and drug discovery which has long timelines and high costs.
“Our growth in the UK is a testament to our hard working team and we are looking forward to the opportunities in the US for the life sciences market.”
Automata, which raised $50m in Series B funding in 2022, has several high-profile partnerships in the UK: it supports bit.bio to scale the manufacturing of human cells; powers genome sample preparation at The Francis Crick Institute; and automates diagnostic testing with the NHS.
Automata will launch its first US office in Boston and is already supporting customers across the country with employees based in multiple states.