Vilnius-based enzyme company Biomatter raised €6.5M in a seed round

 

Lithuanian enzyme company Biomatter has raised €6.5M in a seed funding round. Finnish fund Inventure and German UVC Partners were the lead investors. Existing investors Lithuanian Practica Capital and Estonian Metaplanet also participated in this round.

Founded in Vilnius in 2018 by Laurynas Karpus, Vykintas Jauniskis, and Donatas Repecka, Biomatter has developed an Intelligent Architecture platform that enables enzymes to be created from scratch, starting from the first atom or by radically redesigning existing natural protein scaffolds. Before the creation of the enzyme, a team of engineers describes the ideal enzyme characteristics, carefully considering its end use.

Enzymes enable the creation of new molecules, cells, and organisms. They also play a significant role in various industrial applications such as biofuels, agriculture, the food and beverage industry, gene editing, etc.

Biomatter's clients include American biotech Thermo Fisher Scientific, German chemical company BASF, American biotech Neogen, etc.

The startup will use the investment to expand the capabilities of the platform and create enzymes de novo (from scratch).

Practica Capital manages four funds with a total market value of €132M. The firm has invested over €10M from its Practica Capital III fund. It recently announced a second closing of its €80M fund.

Metaplanet Holdings is an early-stage investment firm of Skype’s founder Jaan Tallinn. It has more than 160 companies in its venture investment portfolio.