Nuclera extends Series C funding to $87M to accelerate antibody engineering work

Biotech company Nuclera has secured an additional $12 million in financing, bringing its total Series C funding to $87 million. The extension was led by Elevage Medical Technologies and Jonathan Milner, with participation from existing investors British Business Bank and GK Goh.

Nuclera is focused on streamlining protein expression and purification workflows through its benchtop system, eProtein Discovery, with the aim of improving access to proteins for drug discovery research. By integrating cell-free expression systems, digital microfluidics, and comprehensive screening data, the platform helps identify promising protein candidates early, supporting more efficient development while reducing time, cost, and uncertainty.

As part of its expansion into AI-enabled protein engineering, the company plans to extend eProtein Discovery with antibody-specific capabilities. This will enable researchers to perform end-to-end expression, purification, and binding validation of full-format antibodies within a single, integrated high-throughput system, while also supporting the generation of scalable, standardised, high-quality datasets for training advanced AI models in biologics research.

According to CEO and co-founder Dr. Michael Chen, the new funding reflects the company’s momentum and its strategy to position eProtein Discovery within one of the fastest-growing segments of biologics R&D. He added:

Scientists increasingly require scalable, high-quality datasets to power AI models in biologics discovery. We are positioning Nuclera to become a foundational platform for the future of protein and antibody engineering, ultimately accelerating therapeutic discovery timelines.

The investment will further support the integration of antibody expression and binding validation capabilities into the eProtein Discovery system, enabling in-house multiplex protein screening, characterisation, and expression.