Nuclera, a biotech company developing a benchtop platform for rapid access to functional proteins, has raised a $12 million extension to its Series C financing, bringing total Series C funding to $87 million.
The extension was led by Elevage Medical Technologies and Nuclera board chair Jonathan Milner, with participation from existing investors including the British Business Bank and GK Goh. Nuclera said the new capital will accelerate the integration of antibody expression and binding validation capabilities into its eProtein Discovery System, expanding the platform beyond protein expression and characterization into end-to-end workflows for full-format antibodies.
Nuclera is positioning the antibody-focused expansion as a step toward AI-enabled protein engineering. The company said researchers increasingly need scalable, standardized, high-quality datasets to train and power next-generation AI models in biologics discovery, and that adding antibody expression, purification, and binding validation on an integrated, high-throughput system is designed to help generate those datasets while keeping screening and characterization in-house.
Since closing its prior Series C financing in 2024, Nuclera has added a membrane protein workflow to the eProtein Discovery platform, expanded customer access through distribution partnerships across APAC and the Middle East, and launched a collaboration with Cytiva aimed at accelerating the path from DNA to purified and characterized proteins to better evaluate drug-target interactions. Nuclera also noted that the eProtein Discovery System has been installed at Domainex, which it described as the first CRO implementation of the platform, supporting protein production services and further commercial validation.
Nuclera said its approach combines cell-free expression systems, digital microfluidics, and screening data to help teams identify which proteins are most likely to succeed earlier in development, reducing time, cost, and uncertainty associated with protein expression and purification. Taylor Wessing LLP served as Nuclera’s legal advisor on the financing.
KEY QUOTES:
“This financing underscores our growing momentum and demonstrates that we are expanding eProtein Discovery into one of the fastest-growing segments of biologics R&D. 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.”
Dr. Michael Chen, CEO and Co-founder, Nuclera
“Since our initial investment, Nuclera has made meaningful progress in expanding the capabilities, adoption, and global reach of the eProtein Discovery platform. The extension of the system into full-format antibody expression, purification, and binding validation represents a significant step forward, particularly as biologics discovery becomes increasingly driven by AI-enabled workflows that require scalable, high-quality datasets. Elevage is proud to continue supporting Nuclera as it evolves into a foundational platform for protein and antibody engineering, helping researchers accelerate discovery timelines and reduce friction across the drug development process.”
Dr. Michael Wasserman, Chief Operating Officer, Elevage Medical Technologies
“Nuclera is solving one of the most pressing bottlenecks in biologics discovery – the slow, fragmented, and resource-intensive process of synthesising full-format antibodies. The team’s success in membrane proteins, one of the most challenging protein classes, combined with their microfluidic expertise, places them in a unique position to transform antibody development workflows.”
Dr. Jonathan Milner, Chairman of the Nuclera Board of Directors; Founder and Former CEO of Abcam; CEO of Meltwind Advisory
