- Opentrons, a Brooklyn-based startup that's building robots to help out with routine lab work, just closed a $10 million seed-funding round led by Khosla Ventures.
- Its robots help scientists by automating the process of pipetting, a necessary task for things like getting DNA samples ready for sequencing.
- Opentrons has been using the funding to develop its new robot, OT-2, which has a starting price of $4,000 — a much lower cost than traditional lab equipment that performs the same task.
- The hope is to open the technology up to more people who might be interested in biotech, including areas like fashion and food tech, that until now weren't able to pay high prices for the equipment.
Opentrons, a Brooklyn-based startup that's trying to replace lab work that scientists often have to do by hand with a $4,000 robot, just raised $10 million.
The seed funding round was led by Khosla Ventures, which was joined by the Y Combinator Continuity Fund, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, and former Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler. The company got its start back in 2014 with a Kickstarter campaign, and went on to be a part of Y Combinator in 2016.
Opentrons develops robots that help scientists by automating the process of pipetting, which transports a certain amount of liquid from one place to another. It's a necessary part of doing things like getting DNA samples ready for sequencing.
The funding, which has come in over the last year, has been used in part to get Opentrons' new robot, the OT-2, developed, along with now launching the product. The OT-2 starts at $4,000, a price point Opentrons says is 10 times less than traditional lab robots.
Here's what it looks like in action in Opentrons' offices in Brooklyn's Dumbo neighborhood.
The hope is that by making the robot cheaper, it'll open up the world of biotech to not only those developing medications but to folks that don't come from traditional biotech backgrounds who might be interested in applying biotech to their industry, like fashion and food. Will Canine, chief product officer at Opentrons, told Business Insider said about 75% of Opentrons customers hadn't had a lab robot before their Opentrons machine.
Canine compared the easier accessibility of the robots to the advancements that were made with early computers. In the same way early computers were only available in certain institutions that could afford them, that's how lab equipment's been so far. Canine sees Opentrons robots transforming labs the ways PCs changed how people interacted with computers.
The robots are also open-source, with the hope that this will make it easier to share scientific protocols between labs so that those running the robots don't have to start from scratch. Going forward, Canine said, the plan is to build more products and applications to add on to the robot.
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