NunaBio raises £6.5M to scale next-gen DNA manufacturing
What's the deal? NunaBio, a Newcastle-based biotech startup developing a next-generation DNA synthesis platform, has closed a £6.5 million ($8.3M) funding round. The company also won the Medilink North of England Healthcare Business Awards 2026 Investment Award, presented at Cutlers' Hall in Sheffield on the same day as the funding announcement.
CEO Joe Hedley accepted the award on behalf of the team. The Medilink Investment Award recognises businesses that have attracted strong investor interest by pairing innovative technology with clear commercial potential.
Why now? Demand for high-quality, complex DNA is accelerating across research, healthcare, and industrial biotechnology. NunaBio says its platform can unlock levels of complexity, customisation, and scale that traditional DNA synthesis methods can't match.
The company plans to use the fresh capital to scale its manufacturing capabilities and push into established markets it aims to disrupt.
What could go wrong? DNA synthesis is a competitive field, with well-funded incumbents like Twist Bioscience and IDTDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → already operating at scale. NunaBio will need to prove its technology works reliably at commercial volumes — a leap that has tripped up many promising biotech startups.
Scaling a manufacturing platform from early R&D to industrial production is capital-intensive, and £6.5M may only get the company so far before it needs to raise again.
The signal: NunaBio's £6.5 million round underscores investor interest in the foundational infrastructure layer of synthetic biology — the tools and platforms that enable drug development, biomanufacturing, and industrial biotech at scale. Notably, the company is building from Newcastle, adding to a growing pattern of deep-tech biotech investment flowing beyond the traditional London–Oxford–Cambridge triangle and signalling that the UK's regional innovation ecosystems are gaining credibility with backers.
Read more: nunabio.com
