Automata, an automation company helping life sciences innovate, diagnose and discover at scale, today announced a $50 million (£36.8M) raise in Series B funding.

The round was led by Octopus Ventures with participation from returning investors Hummingbird, Latitude Ventures, ABB Technology Ventures, Isomer Capital as well as strategic investors including In-Q-Tel.

WHAT IT DOES

The firm’s Automata Lab technology enables life scientists to shorten turnaround times by scaling capacities, enabling them to spend more time on their analyses and reducing costs. It recently partnered with the NHS, with its systems being utilised by NHS pathology labs to help meet diagnostic backlogs and upscale capacity. One NHS labs is running 40 fully automated stations.

Automata also advises and deploys automation with contract research organisations, research labs, and blue-chip healthcare institutions.

WHAT IT’S FOR

The investment will enable significant development of Automata Labs for scientists working across diagnostic, drug discovery and biotech in the UK and beyond.

MARKET SNAPSHOT

Adoption of automated solutions to increase productivity and decrease inefficiencies in the healthcare industry has accelerated since the COVID pandemic.

Voice-powered doctor’s assistant Notable announced a $100 million (£73.6M) Series B funding round in November 2021 for its automation tools for clinical administration and workflows. The same month, healthcare call automation company Infinitus Systems announced a $30 million (£22M) Series B funding round.

Also last year, healthcare automation company Olive closed a $400 million (£294M) round for its software which automates administrative tasks for healthcare organisations.

Meanwhile in India, Healthnet Global recently launched a smart in-patient room automation system AutoMaid, featuring remote patient monitoring and triaging.

ON THE RECORD

Mostafa ElSayed, Automata CEO said: “I’m really excited at how this funding will take us on the next stage of our successful journey. At Automata we have always believed in the power of automation to support a variety of uses especially when deployed at scale. We are thrilled to see our users adopt automation at a scale that transforms their ability to deliver more innovation in the life sciences to ultimately accelerate their pursuit of progress.

“For far too long scientists and clinicians have been having to work with overly complex lab solutions: equipment and software are disjointed and difficult to orchestrate, while solutions are often too rigid and inappropriate for labs with small geographic footprints.  Our next generation technology solves this.”

Jess McCreadie, principal, health tech at Octopus Ventures said: “Automata’s robotic capabilities are truly the first of its kind and the company has combined this with deep expertise in automation and a highly effective business model which has created a leading-edge over competitors. Automata Labs accelerates human ingenuity, empowering labs, and scientists, to achieve consistent results faster, on a greater scale, and to ultimately upscale their ambitions.

“We are delighted to have led this financing round as Automata represented exactly the type of highly innovative company we invest in and support.”