Biotech firm Imperagen raises £5m led by PXN Ventures and IQ Capital
This article covers Imperagen, a Manchester biotech startup, which has raised £5m in a growth funding round and appointed Guy Levy-Yurista as CEO. The funding will support research and development, expansion of wet lab capabilities and growth of its go-to-market function to accelerate enzyme engineering for manufacturers in pharmaceuticals, personal care, sustainable fine chemicals and industrial biotech.
Imperagen, a Manchester biotech startup, has raised £5 million in a growth funding round and appointed Guy Levy-Yurista as CEO. The cash will fund research and development, expansion of wet lab capabilities and growth of its go-to-market function over the next 18 months, bringing the company’s total funding to £8.5 million.
Why it matters
Enzymes are central to pharmaceutical manufacturing, personal care and sustainable chemical production because they can reduce waste, cut energy use and lower costs. Traditional enzyme engineering often relies on slow, manual screening that delivers low hit rates. Faster, more reliable enzyme design could shrink development times and make greener chemical processes commercially viable at scale.
Imperagen’s approach — combining quantum physics, AI and automation — aims to tackle that bottleneck by increasing the rate at which useful enzyme variants are found and validated. If the technology delivers consistently, it could change how manufacturers in medicines, cosmetics and industrial biotech solve efficiency and sustainability challenges.
Inside the product
Imperagen runs a closed-loop platform that layers quantum physics simulations, problem-specific AI models and automated robotics. Quantum models generate large datasets of predicted enzyme mutations. Those predictions train AI models calibrated to a specific engineering problem. Automated robotics test the top predictions in the lab, and experimental results feed back into the AI models to improve future iterations.
That feedback loop is designed to focus experiments progressively on higher-value variants. In a project with a Fortune 500 personal care company, Imperagen reports it improved the productivity of two enzymes by 677x and 572x respectively across five rounds of optimisation.
The new funds will be used to scale wet lab operations, expand the in-house AI team and boost commercial activity across pharmaceuticals, life sciences, personal care, sustainable fine chemicals and industrial biotech.
Who are the investors?
The round was led by PXN Ventures, with participation from existing backers IQ Capital and Northern Gritstone. The round brings Imperagen’s total raised to £8.5 million.
PXN’s involvement includes investment from the GMC Life Sciences Fund and the firm’s NPIF II fund, reflecting a preference among some regional investors to back companies that combine local talent ties and sector relevance.
Sim Singh-Landa, Investor at PXN, said:
The North West’s life sciences ecosystem is becoming stronger all the time and stands to gain from Imperagen’s local hiring and growth plans, building on the company’s connection to the University of Manchester's Manchester Institute of Biotechnology. We’re excited to be supporting Imperagen with investment from both the GMC Life Sciences Fund and our NPIF II fund, as the company looks to scale success in enzyme engineering and deliver progress within the life sciences sector, which is one of the key sectors highlighted in the UK Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy.
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Founder perspective
Guy Levy-Yurista, who has joined Imperagen as CEO, framed the company as representative of a new wave of ventures that are AI-native and deep tech.
Guy Levy-Yurista, CEO at Imperagen, said:
What I see right now is that the companies that will make a radical difference in this emerging AI-driven future are all AI-native, lean on real world data, have genuine impact, and are fundamentally deep tech. Imperagen has each of those characteristics, combining them with outstanding people, phenomenal technology and the undeniable swagger you only get from Manchester. It was a no-brainer to join the team and lead this next stage in its growth.
The bigger picture
Imperagen sits at the intersection of two broader trends: the use of AI to accelerate wet-lab discovery and growing interest in replacing energy- and resource-intensive chemical routes with biocatalytic alternatives. Success here could unlock commercial and environmental benefits across multiple industries.
The company’s Manchester base and links to the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology underline how research hubs outside London are feeding biotech innovation. For regional ecosystems and investors, backing AI-driven biotech companies offers a way to capture value from local talent and university spinouts.
This deal also reflects wider momentum among UK biotech investors towards firms that combine computational tools with experimental validation, a pattern likely to shape funding decisions across Europe as companies compete to commercialise lab-to-scale innovations.
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