NunaBio, a TechBio company producing synthetic DNA for biochemical research, has raised £1.9m in a seed round with participation from Pioneer Group, North East Innovation Fund, the European Regional Development Fund, Northstar Ventures, Ascension Life Fund and Martlet Capital.

As part of the investment, NunaBio will also join Pioneer Group’s Venture Building programme. It will receive wrap-around support from leaders in the field for starting up, scaling and raising investment. The Company will benefit from commercialisation support for 12 months.

Founded in April 2021 as a spin-out from Newcastle University, NunaBio is developing a novel method of DNA synthesis which enables the cost-effective production of oligonucleotides at impressive scale, speed, and accuracy. The platform will enable the synthesis of whole genes and DNA fragments of unprecedented length without using plasmids or primers, which are existing bottlenecks in the synthetic biology industry.

NunaBio’s technology has broad applications across multiple areas of life sciences, including gene therapy, T cell engineering, viral vector synthesis, diagnostics, hybridisation capture and targeted biomarker panels.

Glenn Crocker, Head of Ventures at Pioneer Group, said: “NunaBio is pioneering a new era of DNA synthesis that has the potential to revolutionise the synthetic biology industry and fill a gap across key life sciences markets. We are impressed by the technology Joe and his team have developed so rapidly and are proud to be part of this financing round. We also welcome them to our life sciences ecosystem and look forward to helping them thrive in every step of their innovation journey.”

Joe Hedley, Co-founder and CEO of NunaBio, said: “I am delighted to have the support of top life sciences investors which will enable us to further evolve our DNA synthesis technology, making our system one of the most innovative technologies in the market. Our investors share our mission of delivering accurate, efficient DNA synthesis to have a lasting impact on the world and so we are delighted they have chosen to invest in NunaBio. We are also excited to be joining Pioneer Group’s venture building programme and to work closely with its highly experienced life sciences team.”