UK BUSINESS AI UNIVERSE: Start-ups: Industry: Industrial biotechnology

Founded

2021 (by researchers from the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology)

Founders

Not stated (not named in sources opened)

Chief executive

Guy Levy-Yurista — joined with the May 2026 seed round

Hq

Manchester (England: North West); other_offices: not stated

What it does

Imperagen engineers enzymes (natural catalysts) for pharma, personal care, fine chemicals and industrial biotech. Quantum-physics simulations train custom AI models; robots test the best predictions in the lab and the results feed back into the models.

Research focus

Closed-loop enzyme engineering combining "quantum simulation, custom AI models, and robotic laboratory automation".

Models and products

closed-loop enzyme engineering platform (unnamed) — reports enzyme productivity gains of 677x and 572x in five rounds — May 2026

Customers or partners named

unnamed Fortune 500 personal-care company — enzyme project for a new product line — May 2026 — https://tech.eu/2026/05/21/imperagen-raises-ps5m-seed-round-to-accelerate-ai-driven-enzyme-engineering/

Rounds found

21 May 2026 — seed — £5m — PXN Ventures — IQ Capital, Northern Gritstone (already DEAL-LAB-2020 / DEAL-LC-093)

Status now

Trading; closed a £5m seed round in May 2026 under new CEO Guy Levy-Yurista.

Labs Round 8 deep profile (31 Oct 2026), as the researchers wrote it; confidence: one source (two trade sources, no primary).

Sources

1. uktech.news/biotech/imperagen-raises-5m-to-accel
2. tech.eu/2026/05/21/imperagen-raises-ps5m-seed-ro
3. uktech.news/funding/uk-tech-funding-roundup-this