UK-based biomanufacturing startup FabricNano raises $12.5 million

London cell-free biomanufacturing startup FabricNano has secured $12.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Atomico, with participation from existing investors Backed, Hoxton Ventures, and Entrepreneur First, as well as a long list of angel investors. The round brings the total amount raised by FabricNano to $16 million.

The goal of FabricNano's technology is to make biomanufacturing — that is, using biological systems to produce certain materials — scalable and efficient. Cell-free biomanufacturing, which the company focuses on, means that “living cells are removed from the biomanufacturing process and replaced with enzymes,” the company explained in an announcement.

The startup didn't invent cell-free biomanufacturing, but says that it has made it commercially viable thanks to “the high purity of its bioproducts that require little to no downstream processing, which accounts for approximately 25% of chemical manufacturing costs.”

FabricNano said that it will use the fresh funding “to advance the development of sustainably synthesised alternatives to petrochemical products such as plastics, perfume fragrances, and drugs, which currently account for 14% of global oil demand.”