NunaBio has secured Euro 6.5 million in funding to scale-up its proprietary DNA platform and accelerate its continued growth as a commercially focused infrastructure business for synthetic biology, therapeutics and research.

The funding will support the ongoing development of NunaBio’s integrated DNA platform, which combines multiple enzymatic technologies with proprietary hardware to deliver DNA at speed, scale and complexity beyond the constraints of conventional manufacturing approaches.

The funding also marks an important step in advancing the company’s vision for scalable DNA micro-foundries to support synthetic biology and therapeutic development.

As demand for DNA continues to grow across applications such as vaccines, gene therapies and advanced biologics, existing manufacturing models are increasingly constrained by trade-offs between throughput, scale and sequence complexity. NunaBio is addressing this bottleneck through a fundamentally different approach - positioning DNA as a critical enabling material supported by scalable infrastructure.

Joe Hedley, CEO and Co-Founder of NunaBio, said, “This investment marks an important step in scaling a fundamentally new approach to DNA manufacturing. Our focus is on enabling DNA that others cannot produce and translating that capability into a robust, industrial platform.

He further added, “Our long-term vision is a globally deployable network of DNA micro-foundries - compact, automated production units applying semiconductor-style manufacturing principles to biology. By standardising and modularising production, we can deliver scalable, high-performance DNA manufacturing without the constraints of traditional approaches.”

Unlike traditional providers that optimise along a single performance axis, NunaBio are developing a ‘full stack’ end-to-end system, enabling high-quality DNA production without compromise across key parameters. This approach supports the rapid production of complex DNA constructs and high-yield material, unlocking new possibilities across mRNA therapeutics, synthetic biology, diagnostics and emerging applications such as DNA data storage.

The investment was led by Northstar Ventures, deploying capital from the UK’s North East Spinout Inspire Fund and the Northstar EIS Growth Fund, both of which support the commercialisation of high-impact technologies emerging from the North East UK region.

Alex Buchan, Investment Director at Northstar Ventures, commented, “NunaBio is developing a highly differentiated approach to DNA manufacturing with significant potential across a range of high-growth applications. We identified NunaBio’s potential to transform industry economics from early on. We are pleased to support the company as it scales its technology and commercial reach.”

The Euro 22.5 million North East Spinout Inspire Fund is backed by the universities of Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside (UK), as well as The North East Combined Authority (via the North East Fund). It has been established to commercialise research and innovation emerging from the UK’s five North East universities.

Additional participation in the round came from a group of UK and US investors, including HIT Investments (US), and a syndicate of North East angel investors, alongside continued support from existing backers.

Founded in 2021 as a spin-out from Newcastle University, NunaBio has made significant technical and commercial progress, establishing early partnerships and delivering DNA products that address previously unmet manufacturing challenges. 

The company’s cell-free system enables the synthesis of highly complex DNA, supported by a growing intellectual property portfolio and increasing demand for advanced DNA formats.

A key differentiator is NunaBio’s development of deployable, modular manufacturing systems. These ‘DNA micro-foundries’ are designed to enable both centralised production and distributed manufacturing, allowing organisations to integrate DNA production capability directly within their own environments. This model has the potential to improve supply chain resilience, reduce infrastructure requirements, and accelerate innovation cycles.

NunaBio has also previously received support from Northern Accelerator through its Growth Support Funding, which contributed to the early development of its next-generation enzymatic DNA manufacturing platform.