COBALT advised Astanor as the lead investor in Biomatter’s USD 18 million Series A funding round, the Lithuanian biotechnology company’s largest financing to date. Existing investors UVC Partners, Inventure and Metaplanet also participated in the round.
Founded in 2018, Biomatter uses artificial intelligence to design custom enzymes for specific industrial needs, including enzymes capable of performing reactions not found in nature. Its technology helps companies improve manufacturing processes and develop new products across sectors such as healthcare, food and chemicals.
The investment will finance a new 2,000-square-metre enzyme design and testing facility in Vilnius, scheduled to open in 2027. By bringing more laboratory development and testing activities in-house, the facility is expected to help shorten the company’s enzyme development cycles from weeks to days.
The funding will also support the expansion of Biomatter’s commercial team and its presence in the US, where approximately half of its customers are based, alongside further investment in its computational platform and proprietary enzyme dataset.
Biomatter has delivered more than 50 custom enzymes to over 25 enterprise customers across Europe, the US and Japan, including AstraZeneca, BASF and Sanofi. The company has also collaborated with Thermo Fisher Scientific to improve an enzyme used in molecular biology research, demonstrating the practical application of its technology in commercial products.
Astanor was advised by the COBALT Lithuania team, led by Partner Akvilė Bosaitė and Associate Partner Aurelija Balčiūnė.
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