UK-based deeptech startup Anzen Industries has raised £1.7 million ($2.2 million) in pre-seed funding to develop its cell-free biomanufacturing platform for producing high-value chemicals.
The round was led by LocalGlobe and Creator Fund, with participation from strategic angel investors across the UK, EU, and US, including Konstantin von Unger and early-stage investor Cory Levy.
What Does Anzen Industries Do?
Founded by scientists Amy Locks and Pedro Lovatt Garcia, Anzen Industries is building a biomanufacturing platform that uses cell-free enzyme systems to produce complex chemicals. Unlike traditional methods that rely on living cells, Anzen's approach uses enzymes operating outside of cells to carry out biochemical reactions.
The company has developed reusable, low-infrastructure enzyme reactors designed to manufacture complex molecules more efficiently than traditional chemical synthesis, plant extraction, or fermentation-based methods. The goal is to improve the resilience, scalability, and economic viability of global supply chains for critical chemicals across multiple industries.
Anzen's platform combines proprietary enzyme reactor technology, enzyme immobilisation techniques, and AI-driven design. This approach allows highly specific and tunable enzymes to operate within small, modular reactors, supporting more flexible and cost-effective scaling while reducing reliance on capital-intensive infrastructure.
Why Cell-Free Manufacturing Matters
Existing approaches to manufacturing complex chemicals face several constraints. Organic synthesis can be difficult to scale, plant extraction depends on variable agricultural supply, and fermentation typically requires significant infrastructure and downstream processing, leading to high capital costs.
Co-founder and CTO Pedro Lovatt Garcia outlined the company's technical vision:
"We started Anzen Industries because we believe that, from first principles, the future of manufacturing will be cell-free. If enzymes can be kept robust outside of the cell, we can carry out the same manufacturing reactions at a fraction of the infrastructure, energy and cost."
Anzen's cell-free system is designed to address these limitations by improving efficiency and shortening time to market.
The Founders
Amy Locks serves as CEO, bringing technical expertise from her enzyme immobilisation PhD at UCL combined with commercial experience at Pfizer and AstraZeneca. She's an award-winning entrepreneur, having won the LBS Innovation to Market Pitch 2025, and has been featured in Nature Spotlight. Locks is also a graduate of the Conception X and Fifty Years' 5050 founder programmes.
Pedro Lovatt Garcia is Co-founder and CTO, driving the company's technical strategy. He combines deep academic expertise from his PhD in Computational Enzyme Design at Imperial College London with hands-on experience as an expert in high-throughput screening for high-value chemicals. Garcia also brings experience from two previous synthetic biology startups.
Investor Perspectives
Julia Hawkins, General Partner at LocalGlobe, said Anzen is rethinking how critical molecules are produced from first principles, to improve speed, resilience, and control across global supply chains.
CEO Amy Locks highlighted the role of Europe's scientific ecosystem in the company's early development:
"Europe's strong scientific heritage and innovation community allowed us to take our breakthrough from scientific discovery to a viable commercial venture."
What's Next
The company plans to use the funding to relocate operations to the United States, establish its first manufacturing facility, and expand industrial collaborations and partnerships as it scales its biomanufacturing platform.
The funding comes as the UK continues to attract significant deeptech investment, with 56,615 new tech companies incorporated in 2025 alone.
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