Multiply Labs

Biotech · Robotics · Healthcare

Funding

Multiply Labs raises $75M Series B led by Soon-Shiong, AstraZeneca invests

Strategic backing from a pharma giant signals the deal is as much about landing a customer as raising cash.

• Multiply Labs raised a $75 million Series B led by Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong through NantWorks, with AstraZeneca and Teradyne joining as new investors.
• The San Francisco startup builds robotic clusters that automate manual steps in manufacturing cell and gene therapies and other biologic medicines inside drugmakers' own facilities.
• The round brings Multiply Labs' total funding past $100 million since its 2016 founding, and the company claims its system cuts cost per dose by 74% while boosting throughput up to 100-fold.
• Returning investors Casdin Capital, Lux Capital, Fifty Years, Ora Global and Founders Fund also participated, alongside new backer Lingotto and Strange Ventures.
• Multiply Labs says its robots closely imitate a drugmaker's existing validated manual steps, a design meant to avoid triggering new regulatory approval for changed manufacturing processes.
• The company plans to use the capital to expand manufacturing capacity and extend its platform beyond cell and gene therapy into antibodies, viral vectors and mRNA therapies.
• As AI speeds up drug discovery, manual biomanufacturing has become the bottleneck limiting how fast new therapies reach patients, and strategics like AstraZeneca investing suggests they see automation as a competitive necessity rather than just an R&D bet.