Cambridge-based Nuclera, a BioTech company accelerating drug discovery by providing access to functional proteins through its benchtop eProtein Discovery System, today announced a €10 million ($12 million) financing extension, bringing the Company’s total Series C funding to €74 million ($87 million).
The raise was led by Elevage Medical Technologies and Jonathan Milner, joined by existing investors British Business Bank and GK Goh. The investment will accelerate the integration of antibody expression and binding validation capabilities into the Company’s eProtein Discovery benchtop system.
Dr Michael Chen, CEO and co-founder, Nuclera, says: “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.”
Alongside Nuclera’s Series C extension, sector analysis from 2025 and 2026 points to sustained investor interest in European BioTech platforms focused on protein engineering, biologics, and AI-enabled discovery.
In early 2026, Helsinki-based Avenue Biosciences raised €4.8 million to scale its protein engineering technology aimed at improving reliability in biologics manufacturing, reflecting demand for faster and more standardised protein production workflows.
At the larger end of the market, Munich-headquartered Tubulis secured a €308 million Series C to advance its antibody-drug conjugate platform, underlining strong capital allocation towards antibody-centric modalities. In Italy, Milan-based NanoPhoria Bioscience closed an €83.5 million Series A to progress its drug delivery technology, while London-based Latent Labs raised €47.9 million to develop a programmable biology platform integrating AI into biological engineering.
Taken together, these rounds represent more than €440 million in disclosed funding. Within this context, Nuclera’s expanded Series C places it among a cohort of European companies building enabling infrastructure for next-generation biologics R&D, with a particular emphasis on scalable, high-quality protein and antibody data to support AI-driven research.
Dr Michael Wasserman, Chief Operating Officer, Elevage Medical Technologies, commented: “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.”
Founded in 2013, Nuclera’s mission is to accelerate discovery by providing researchers rapid, easy access to the highest-quality functional proteins essential for drug discovery research.
The Company’s eProtein Discovery benchtop system combines unique cell-free expression systems, novel digital microfluidics, and robust screening data to empower scientists to perform multiplex protein screening, characterization, and small-scale expression in-house.
By providing clear guidance on which protein has the best chance of success from the start, eProtein Discovery reportedly reduces the time, cost, and uncertainty traditionally associated with protein expression and purification.
The company says researchers can generate soluble, purified proteins, including challenging membrane proteins, for downstream functional testing in under 48 hours, significantly accelerating workflows compared with months-long cell-based methods.
Dr Jonathan Milner, Chairman of the Nuclera Board of Directors, founder and former CEO of Abcam, Inc and CEO of Meltwind Advisory, added: “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.”
Expanding eProtein Discovery with antibody-specific capabilities represents a strategic step as Nuclera moves into AI-enabled protein engineering, addressing a critical industry need for scalable, standardised, and high-quality datasets that can be used to power next-generation AI models in biologics discovery.
The advancement will enable researchers to perform end-to-end expression, purification, and binding validation of full-format antibodies on an integrated, high-throughput system.
Since the closure of its previous Series C financing in 2024, the Company has advanced its eProtein Discovery capabilities with the addition of a membrane protein workflow, extended its global footprint to broaden customer access across APAC and the Middle East, and initiated a collaboration with Cytiva to accelerate the path from DNA to fully purified and characterised proteins to better understand drug-target interactions.
In parallel, the eProtein Discovery system was installed at Domainex, the first CRO implementation of the system, streamlining protein production services and further validating the system’s commercial and scientific impact.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2026/01/uks-nuclera-brings-total-series-c-funding-to-e74-million-following-e10-million-extension-for-its-eprotein-discovery-system/
