Semarion raises £2.9m seed to scale optically barcoded microcarriers for drug screening
This article covers Semarion, a Cambridge biotech startup spun out of the Cavendish Laboratory, which has raised £2.9m in a seed funding round to scale manufacturing and commercial adoption of its SemaCyte® cell-assay platform. The development aims to support drug discovery labs and pharmaceutical service providers by enabling automation-friendly, high-content adherent cell assays and integration with existing imaging and liquid-handling systems.
Semarion, a Cambridge biotech startup spun out of the Cavendish Laboratory, has raised £2.9m (about $3.8m) in a seed funding round to scale manufacturing and commercial adoption of its SemaCyte® cell-assay platform — a move that could shift how drug discovery labs handle adherent cell models and speed automation of cell-based screening workflows.
Why it matters
Drug discovery increasingly demands higher-throughput, data-rich cell assays that fit into automated pipelines. Semarion’s approach — turning adherent cell cultures into assay-ready, optically barcoded microcarriers — promises to make those workflows more flexible and easier to integrate with imaging and liquid-handling systems. That capability is valuable to large pharma and service providers attempting to squeeze more information from cellular assays without sacrificing throughput or reproducibility.
The funding also signals investor appetite for UK biotech spinouts that combine materials engineering with cell biology, and for solutions that bridge lab automation and high-content screening.
Inside the product
Semarion’s SemaCyte platform embeds adherent cells on barcoded microcarriers so they can be handled like reagents: pooled, tracked and read out by imaging systems. The company says this enables richer datasets per run and supports automation across existing lab hardware.
Its technology is already in pilots with several top-10 pharmaceutical companies across the US and Europe and has integrations with established tools vendors. Revvity has added compatibility for SemaCyte detection into its imaging and analysis platforms, and SPT Labtech has combined Semarion’s microcarrier approach with its liquid-handling systems to advance automated cell-based workflows. These integrations reduce friction for labs that want to trial the platform without overhauling equipment.
In the announcement, Karin Boettcher, Product Manager High-Content Screening, Revvity, said:
Semarion’s approach aligns strongly with the industry’s growing demand for more scalable, information-rich cell-based workflows. Their unique use of optically barcoded cell microcarriers opens up exciting new possibilities for high-content screening and profiling, helping researchers generate richer datasets without sacrificing throughput. We have greatly enjoyed working with the Semarion team and look forward to continuing our collaboration to advance next-generation drug discovery workflows.
Who are the investors?
The round was led by Parkwalk and joined by The FSE Group, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, Oxford Innovation Finance, Found Capital, Cambridge Capital Group and Start Codon. This follows a prior £2.2m seed round raised in 2022 and is intended to fund commercial expansion, increased manufacturing throughput and growth of a field application support team.
John Pearson, Chief Investment Officer, Parkwalk, said:
Parkwalk is excited to be supporting the development of Semarion’s technology that has the potential to make a step change in cell-based research, accelerating a critical path in drug discovery. We are backing a team that has proven it can execute in delivering a product that works and can be adopted in customer workflows. This funding will allow Semarion to scale, reaching its full potential and creating value for investors and making a real-world impact.
Parkwalk is known for backing university spinouts and deep-technology life-science projects. The investor rationale here is pragmatic: move from pilot programmes with large pharmaceutical customers towards reproducible, higher-volume manufacturing and commercial support so deployments can scale across labs.
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Founder perspective
Jeroen Verheyen, CEO and Co-Founder at Semarion, framed the raise as a necessary step to meet demand from industry customers and to translate existing pilot momentum into wider commercial adoption.
In the announcement, Jeroen Verheyen, CEO and Co-Founder at Semarion, said:
This funding marks an important step as we scale to meet growing demand from the industry. Scientists are under increasing pressure to generate more cell-based data, improve automation and drive operational efficiency. SemaCytes enable them to do this within existing workflows and infrastructure, and we are now focused on translating that momentum into broader adoption.
The bigger picture
Semarion sits at the intersection of UK academic spinouts, lab automation and high-content screening — areas that have seen steady investor interest as drug discovery labs seek more scalable, data-rich assays. Vendors such as Revvity and SPT Labtech acting as integration partners shortens the path from pilot to production use, which is often the sticking point for new assay formats.
This round also underscores how Cambridge continues to feed the UK biotech ecosystem with companies that combine novel materials approaches and cell biology, attracting both specialist life-science investors and strategic partners.
Semarion’s raise and partnerships illustrate a broader trend in the UK and Europe: investors are supporting startups that can industrialise laboratory workflows, not just develop new biological targets. As the region aims to strengthen its life-science manufacturing and translational capacity, companies that can scale assay production and slot into existing automation infrastructures are likely to attract more capital and commercial interest.
They've invested in Semarion
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| Investor | Sector | Stage | Activity | Team | Connect |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Parkwalk | 6 investments investments | more info | |||
 The FSE Group | 9 investments investments | 9 contacts contacts | |||
 Cambridge Enterprise (Cambridge Enterprise Ventures) | 12 investments investments | more info | |||
 Oxford Innovation (Oxford Innovation Finance) | 2 investments investments | more info | |||
 Found Capital | 5 investments investments | more info | |||
 Cambridge Capital Group | 1 investment investment | more info | |||
 Start Codon | 3 investments investments | more info |
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