SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Multiply Labs, a robotics company developing automated manufacturing systems for the production of individualized drugs, announced today that it has raised $20 million in a Series A financing led by Casdin Capital. New investors Lux Capital and Pathfinder, Founders Fund’s early stage investment vehicle also participated in the round, along with seed investors Fifty Years and Garage Capital. The oversubscribed round brings Multiply Labs’ total funding raised to date to more than $25 million. With this round, Michael Doherty, a personalized medicine pioneer and former head of Regulatory Affairs at Roche and a representative of Casdin Capital will join Multiply Labs’ Board of Directors.
Multiply Labs operates at the intersection of robotics and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The company was founded to leverage automation to address the fundamental limitations of the heavily manual processes that are traditionally used to manufacture small-batch pharmaceutical products. Multiply Labs’ robotic systems leverage the latest advancements in autonomous technology – from collaborative robots to cloud-controlled fleets – to enable the production of individualized drugs at industrial scale.
The company provides robotic manufacturing capacity as a service for biotech organizations, focusing on two markets: robotic manufacturing of personalized capsules for clinical trials, and robotic manufacturing of cell therapies. Multiply Labs is developing cloud-controlled robotic systems for the production of experimental cell therapies in collaboration with a Consortium of leading industrial and research organizations in the space.
“We strongly believe that robotic technology is essential to scale the production of individualized, next-gen drugs. Only automation can bring these life-saving therapies to all the patients who need them, safely and efficiently,” said Fred Parietti, PhD, Co-founder and CEO of Multiply Labs. “Our goal is to augment pharma manufacturing with deep, industry-leading robotics technology. We are proud to work with top investors in both biopharma and tech. This funding will allow us to grow our installed production capacity, while expanding our range of applications to new therapies.”
“The Multiply Labs robotics platform has the added potential to introduce a digital, total quality control system,” said Michael Doherty, former head of Regulatory Affairs at Roche. “It is with great excitement that I join Multiply Labs’ Board of Directors to support the team in developing and scaling this pioneering technology.”
“If you look behind every great disruptive technological advance you will find scaled and efficient manufacturing,” said Eli Casdin, Chief Investment Officer and Founder, Casdin Capital. “Precision medicine and the wave of molecular therapies on the horizon is no different. We see Multiply Labs’ platform and the team’s deep expertise in robotics and pharma R&D, as uniquely positioned to deliver the increased efficiency, lower cost, and greater flexibility necessary to accelerate innovative drug discovery and production. We are excited to lend our help and capital to fuel the company’s next leg of growth.”
About Multiply Labs
Multiply Labs is a robotics technology company that provides autonomous manufacturing services to the pharmaceutical industry. The company develops advanced, cloud-controlled robotic systems that enable the production of individualized drugs at scale. Its customers include some of the largest global organizations in the advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing space. Multiply Labs’ expertise is at the intersection of robotics and biopharma – its team includes mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, computer scientists, software engineers and pharmaceutical scientists. Most of the founding team got in touch because of their shared love of robots at MIT. The company is based in San Francisco, California. For more information please visit www.multiplylabs.com.
