Opentrons Labworks, a laboratory automation company, has announced a $40 million Series E financing led by healthcare investor Avego, with additional investment from BroadOak Capital Partners.
Opentrons will use the capital to scale its robotics, software, and data infrastructure tools, which scientists around the world increasingly rely on to accelerate discovery.
While AI is transforming how science is conducted, the physical lab has become a bottleneck. Scientists can use frontier models to generate hypotheses and design experiments far faster than laboratories can test them.
Opentrons closes that gap with its Opentrons Flex platform, which includes robots and AI systems that enable experiments to be designed, run, and improved in a continuous loop.
Considering its deployment of over 11,000 robots to laboratories in over 80 countries, including at 90 percent of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies, Opentrons’ combination of scale and AI-readiness puts it at the center of autonomous science.
James Atwood, PhD, CEO of Opentrons, says: “Millions of scientists spend much of their day on manual work a robot can do. Giving that time back to discovery is the biggest opportunity in science.
“We made lab automation accessible for any lab, and our systems are built for AI to run experiments directly. That is why autonomous science is standardizing on Opentrons.”
The Series E will fund Opentrons’ next phase of growth in autonomous science, where its AI and robotics systems work together to design, execute and learn from experiments required to achieve its customers’ scientific goals.
The company will invest in AI-driven experimental execution, extend its automation capabilities, and expand into new markets and geographies.
James Flexner, managing partner at Avego, says: “Every AI-driven discovery still has to be tested in a real lab.
“Drug developers and AI companies alike are moving experimental work forward toward automated workflows that generate usable data. We see a significant opportunity for autonomous science to converge around Opentrons’ platform.”
Additionally, the Series E will allow Opentrons to enable faster protocol development through its software and AI, expand capabilities across its robots and instruments, and provide deeper integration of its tools into the broader lab automation ecosystem.
With its open platform, global installed base, and more than a decade of laboratory automation experience, Opentrons will continue to empower academic groups, diagnostics labs, and global pharmaceutical companies worldwide to bring autonomous science to their own benches.
