Prolific Machines Closes $50 Million Series B2

<p><strong><span class&equals;"legendSpanClass">EMERYVILLE <&sol;span><&sol;strong>&&num;8212&semi; Prolific Machines&comma; abiotechnology company advancing biologics development and manufacturing through integrated optogenetics-enabled solutions&comma; has closed a &dollar;50 million Series B2 financing led by Atoms &amp&semi; Bits&comma; a growth-stage fund&comma; and Nant Capital&comma; the investment organization which is part of a portfolio of private and public companies in health and life sciences founded by Patrick Soon-Shiong&comma; M&period;D&period; This brings the company&&num;8217&semi;s total funding to over &dollar;100 million&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Prolific Machines will use the new capital to scale its optogenetics platform for biomanufacturing&comma; expanding programs with several top-20 pharma companies and multiple biotechs at its San Francisco Bay Area campus and across its CDMO network&period; The funding will support team growth&comma; further technology development and scale-up across novel biologics&comma; biosimilars and viral vector programs&period; It will also fund early work toward tissue and organ fabrication&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Prolific Machines and NantWorks also announced a strategic collaboration to apply Prolific&&num;8217&semi;s platform across biologic programs within NantWorks&&num;8217&semi; portfolio of health and life sciences companies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;For the last seven years the Prolific Machines team has been creating the field of Optogenetic Biomanufacturing&comma; allowing any process inside of any cell to be controlled with light&period; Our goal is to provide the lowest cost and highest precision infrastructure to control biology&period; We have demonstrated that it works&comma; can be scaled&comma; and that people want it&period; Our biggest issue now is having too much demand and this funding round changes that&period; We will be rapidly scaling the business over the next 12 months&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Deniz Kent&comma; Ph&period;D&period;&comma; CEO and Co-Founder of Prolific Machines&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As part of the financing&comma; James Stewart&comma; founder of Level One Fund and Atoms &amp&semi; Bits&comma; and Patrick Soon-Shiong&comma; M&period;D&period;&comma; founder of NantWorks&comma; have joined Prolific Machines&&num;8217&semi; Board of Directors&period; Existing investors&comma; including Breakthrough Energy Ventures&comma; Mayfield&comma; SOSV&comma; and Fonterra&&num;8217&semi;s venture arm&comma; also participated in the round&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Prolific Machines is the most exciting advancement I have seen in biopharma manufacturing in decades&period; Deniz and his team have built the control system that has long been missing from making medicines in living cells&period; I look forward to NantWorks&comma; its affiliate companies and Prolific working together on multiple fronts&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Patrick Soon-Shiong&comma; M&period;D&period;&comma; founder of NantWorks&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Prolific&&num;8217&semi;s optogenetic platform brings precise&comma; programmable control to cells&comma; with major potential across biopharma and beyond&period; Its early traction already shows strong commercial promise&comma;&&num;8221&semi; commented James Stewart&comma; General Partner of Atoms &amp&semi; Bits&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;