FundraiseAug 31, 2026, 06:25 UTC

ABLE Labs raises 12.1B KRW Series A for lab automation push

What's the deal? South Korean lab automation firm ABLE Labs has raised a 12.1 billion KRW (about $8.8 million) Series A round. Innopolis Partners led, with Industrial Bank of Korea, Capstone Partners, Horizon Ventures, Magna Investment, Futureplay, and Nau IB Capital among seven backers.

What's the endgame? ABLE Labs plans to expand from liquid-handling robots into self-driving labs. It will use the funding to build infrastructure that produces experimental data for AI training.

Why now? The company won new quality-analysis automation projects across four industries — semiconductors, chemicals, cosmetics, and secondary batteries — beyond its bio roots.

By the numbers: ABLE Labs posted 2025 revenue of 1.29 billion KRW, up 113% year on year. Bookings in the first half of 2026 already exceeded double its prior-year revenue.

ABLE Labs has deployed automation solutions at KAIST, Pusan National University, and the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, and is co-developing an organoid-based drug evaluation platform with Johns Hopkins University. It has carried out eight national R&D projects and secured more than 10 billion KRW in government research funding over five years.

The company is running a proof-of-concept with a large US pharmaceutical firm and has completed its first product delivery to a customer in Singapore.

The signal: The round ranks in the 72nd percentile by amount, a solid marker in a Korean lab automation sector drawing fresh capital and government attention.