Lithuania's Biomatter raises $18M to design enzymes that don't exist in nature
What's the deal? Biomatter, a Lithuanian biotech startup, has raised $18 million in a late-stage round led by AstanorDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, an international venture capital fund focused on agriculture and food technology. Existing backers UVC PartnersDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Inventure, and MetaplanetDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → also joined.
What's the endgame? The company runs a generative-AI platform that designs enzymes and proteins — including ones that don't exist in nature. The money will fund a Vilnius research centre and expansion, particularly in the US, where Biomatter says about half its customers are based.
Why now? The raise is a sharp step-up from Biomatter's €6.5 million seed round in 2024, which backed the platform and a growing customer base that includes BASF and Thermo Fisher Scientific.
What could go wrong? The round's significance will ultimately depend on turning designed enzymes into scalable commercial products.
The signal: Biomatter's $18 million stands out in its niche. Comparable European industrial-enzyme ventures have raised far less recently — Sweden's Enginzyme pulled in US$9.07M in 2026. The size of this round marks Biomatter as an outlier among its peers.
Read more: vz.lt
Image credit: Biomatter
