£1.7m seed to commercialise cell-free enzyme manufacturing for high-value molecules
This article covers Anzen Industries, a biotech startup, which has raised £1.7m in a seed funding round to commercialise a cell-free enzyme manufacturing approach and to build its first biomanufacturing facility in California. The development aims to support production of high-value molecules used in cosmetics, fragrance, food and critical minerals processing, and to test industrial partnerships at scale.
Anzen Industries, a biotech startup, has raised £1.7m in a seed funding round to commercialise a cell-free enzyme manufacturing approach and to build its first biomanufacturing facility in California. The funding will support a US shift intended to accelerate production of high-value molecules used across cosmetics, fragrance, food and critical minerals processing, and to test industrial partnerships at scale.
Why it matters
Chemical and ingredient supply chains are under pressure from cost, resource variability and infrastructure demands. Anzen’s approach aims to reduce reliance on traditional organic synthesis, variable plant extraction and heavy fermentation infrastructure by running reactions with isolated, tunable enzymes outside the cell. If it delivers on efficiency and agility, the company’s method could make production of certain critical molecules faster and less capital intensive, with implications for supply chain resilience and local manufacturing capacity.
Inside the product
Anzen combines three technical elements: a proprietary enzyme reactor, enzyme immobilisation techniques and AI-driven enzyme design. The company says this lets it perform biochemical reactions in a cell-free environment, where enzymes are stabilised and tuned for specific reactions. That contrasts with whole-cell fermentation where living organisms carry out chemistry, and with extraction or multi-step organic synthesis routes that can be resource intensive.
The planned California facility is intended to produce high-value active ingredients for cosmetics, fragrance and food sectors, and to provide processing routes relevant to critical minerals. The company frames the approach as enabling more agile scaling and lower infrastructure cost compared with conventional methods.
Who are the investors?
The round was led by LocalGlobe and Creator Fund.
In the announcement, Julia Hawkins, Partner at LocalGlobe, said:
At LocalGlobe, we back founders who don’t just spot waves early, but have the courage and technical depth to ride them at full force. Re-industrialisation is one of the defining waves of this decade, and manufacturing is where it breaks hardest. Anzen is re-imagining how critical molecules are made from first principles, bringing resilience, speed and sovereignty back into global supply chains.
In the announcement, Jamie Macfarlane, CEO at Creator Fund, said:
AI is dramatically expanding the universe of materials that can be used by industry. And yet - the enzyme - one of nature’s most powerful tools for creation - has been overlooked. Less than 1% of known enzymes are used in industry. There is nobody out there who better understands enzyme design and stabilisation than Amy and Pedro.
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Founder perspective
In the announcement, Amy Locks, Co-founder & CEO at Anzen Industries, said:
Europe's strong scientific heritage, community and support have allowed us, as science-based founders, to take our breakthrough from scientific discovery to viable commercial venture. As we look to the next stage of our growth, the US offers a more advanced industrial and innovation ecosystem that is ideal for us as we take a critical step in scaling Anzen’s technology globally.
In the announcement, Pedro Lovatt Garica, Co-founder & CTO at Anzen Industries, said:
We started Anzen Industries because we believe that from first principles the future of manufacturing will be cell-free. If enzymes can be kept robust outside of the cell, we can carry out the same manufacturing reactions at a fraction of the infrastructure, energy and cost. Looking to the future, we envision Anzen Industries leading the market in manufacturing entirely new molecules. Humanity has only tapped 1% of the bioactive molecules produced by nature. AI will be used to discover the other 99% of molecules otherwise hidden in the planet’s biology to develop new products in a range of different industries.
The bigger picture
The raise sits at the intersection of biotech, advanced manufacturing and AI-driven materials discovery. It reflects a broader investor interest in approaches that promise to shorten time to market for speciality molecules and to diversify where production occurs. For UK founders, the move underlines a recurring tension: strong early-stage science in Europe, paired with incentives to locate capital-intensive manufacturing where downstream markets and industrial ecosystems are more established.
Anzen’s decision to build in California will be watched by biotech investors and policymakers alike as an example of early-stage UK science scaling operations overseas. The outcome may influence conversations about how to retain manufacturing value in the UK and Europe as startups seek to commercialise complex, capital-heavy technologies.
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