£6.6m Series A for Abselion’s on-the-spot bioprocessing
Abselion has concluded a £6.6million Series A round led by M Ventures to bring its disruptive at-line protein analyser, Amperia, to market.
Based beside the NIAB building in Girton, Abselion is an innovator in automated analytical instrumentation simplifying at-line protein analytics for the development and production of biologics, such as antibodies and viral vectors.
Working at the intersection of biology, nanotechnology and engineering, Abselion seeks to streamline and accelerate access to process insights in biopharmaceutical research, development and production. Founded in 2018 – at that time under the name HexagonFab – in a small corner of a laboratory at the University of Cambridge, the company “set out with the humble goal to make protein research simpler”.
In 2019 the company secured £1.9m in a seed funding round led by Cambridge Enterprise, joined by Parkwalk, New Grounds VC, Silicon Valley-based R42 Group, Swiss Health Angels and several private investors.
Abselion will use the Series A funding to drive the commercialisation and expand the capabilities of Amperia, its cutting-edge benchtop instrument.
Amperia allows scientists to easily quantify antibodies, AAVs (adeno-associated viruses), and other proteins directly from crude samples in as little as one minute, providing critical data on the spot, enhancing efficiency and accuracy in life science research and bioprocessing.
Built on proprietary Redox Electrochemical Detection (RED) technology, Amperia brings a groundbreaking approach to biologics and viral-vector quantification for confident, convenient and cost-effective automated at-line measurement that is accessible to all laboratories and process environments.
The funding round, led by M Ventures (the strategic, corporate venture capital arm of science and technology company Merck), includes new investors BioProcess 360 Partners and Untitled Ventures, along with BGF, R42 and other existing investors.
Oliver Hardick, entrepreneur in residence at M Ventures, and Chris Major, a founding partner of BioProcess 360 Partners, have joined Abselion’s board of directors.
Dr Hardick said: “Providing meaningful data as close to the process as possible is a crucial pillar of enabling improved bioprocess development and manufacturing robustness. Abselion’s Amperia system does exactly this by delivering gold-standard insights in minutes that bioprocess teams typically wait days for.
“We are thrilled to lead this financing alongside our co-investors and to partner with the Abselion team as they expand this technology and broaden its technical capability through 2025 and beyond.
“We believe this will disrupt how process development operates today, and we invite our colleagues in the industry to reach out to me or the Abselion team to explore this further.”
Ruizhi Wang, CEO of Abselion, said: “We are delighted to have the support of our investment partners to advance our mission to provide scientists with critical real-time data at the point of need.
“The Amperia RED technology delivers the accuracy, speed and agility required for insights that enable confident decision-making, driving bioprocess optimisation and innovation.”
