Prolific Machines, a biotechnology company headquartered in Emeryville, California, announced the initial closing of its $50 million Series B2 financing on October 14, 2026. The round was led by Atoms & Bits and Nant Capital, bringing the company’s total funding to more than $100 million.
Existing investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Mayfield, SOSV and Ki Tua Fund, the venture investment arm of Fonterra, also participated in the financing.
Founded in 2020 by Deniz Kent, Max Huisman and Declan Jones, Prolific Machines develops biotechnology solutions that use light to control cellular processes involved in biologics production. Kent serves as CEO, Huisman as CTO and Jones as Chief Data Officer.
The company’s optogenetics-enabled platform combines light-responsive cell lines, illumination hardware and AI-driven process optimisation to regulate protein expression in conventional bioreactors. Its technology is designed for pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology developers and contract development and manufacturing organisations (CDMOs) working on biologic medicines.
Prolific Machines plans to use the financing to expand its biomanufacturing platform, increase development capacity and support pharmaceutical and biotechnology programmes at its San Francisco Bay Area facilities and through its CDMO network. The investment will also support work involving novel biologics, biosimilars, viral vectors and early-stage tissue and organ fabrication.
Alongside the financing, Prolific Machines announced a strategic collaboration with NantWorks to apply its technology across biologics programmes within the group’s health and life sciences portfolio.
The company also appointed two new directors to its board: James Stewart, founder of Level One Fund and Atoms & Bits, and Patrick Soon-Shiong, founder of NantWorks.
The financing follows Prolific Machines’ Series B1 fundraising in 2024, when the company expanded the commercial applications of its light-controlled biotechnology platform from cellular agriculture into pharmaceutical manufacturing.
