bit.bio Raises $25M Series D to Expand Human Cell Models

Taking an experiment off a customer's hands gives bit.bio a different place in the research budget. The Cambridge human cell programming business sells cells, and its expanding services give laboratories a way to buy the specialised work around them. That combination helps explain the commercial opportunity behind its latest financing.

bit.bio announced a $25M Series D on November 4, 2026, with backing including M&G Investments and Jonathan Milner, founder and former CEO of Abcam. The company plans to widen its cell portfolio and customer access, having already established manufacturing capacity. For research buyers, the significance lies in the range of experiments a supplier can support as well as the number of cells it can deliver.

What the Series D finances

bit.bio describes a business with growing demand and production infrastructure already in place. It reports year-to-date increases of 76% in paid vial volumes, 34% in orders and 40% in active customers, including 63% growth in academic customers. These company-reported measures capture different parts of commercial activity; the announcement supplies no revenue figure against which to translate them into financial growth.

M&G's participation follows the $50M Series C announced on January 9, 2026, which the investment firm led. That earlier announcement emphasised product development, operational scale, toxicology and datasets for AI drug discovery. The Series D brings another financing event into the same year, with the latest proceeds directed toward expanding the offering and access to it.

The November announcement identifies M&G and Milner among the backers without naming a lead investor or disclosing valuation. Its $25M figure is retained as reported, without a currency conversion. A precise cumulative funding total also needs a dated accounting basis: separate announcements and an undated company total should not be added together as though they were a reconciled financing history.

For an operator, the stated use of proceeds matters more than an imagined construction project. bit.bio is describing more products reaching more researchers from an established manufacturing base. The commercial task therefore extends into selecting cell types, explaining their applications and helping customers incorporate them into work already underway.

How programmed cells become an experimental purchase

bit.bio's opti-ox platform uses controlled transcription-factor expression to direct human stem cells toward defined identities. The company describes inserting inducible genetic programs at genomic safe-harbour sites, allowing a population of cells to follow the same program. Its ioCells products carry that approach into research applications where the identity and consistency of the cellular material matter to the experiment.

The purchasing relationship now includes a service layer. Launched on August 13, ioScreen offers CRISPR screening in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived models, with access to specialist experimental capabilities. Customers can use bit.bio's models or bring their own. The service offers a route for a team that wants the biological investigation without establishing the entire screening operation internally.

That distinction changes what a supplier is being asked to deliver. A cell product provides material for the customer's experiment; a screening engagement also brings expertise and experimental execution into the purchase. The commercial implication is a broader relationship with the research team, particularly when its biological question exceeds the capabilities it has available in-house.

The product and service routes also place demands on each other. Researchers need a model suited to their question, then a method that produces interpretable results. As bit.bio extends its catalogue, the surrounding support and experimental knowledge become part of how a buyer evaluates access, rather than an administrative detail after the order.

A broader catalogue carries a practical adoption question

The product releases preceding the funding show how bit.bio is extending that offer. A September partnership with myriamed brought human cardiomyocytes into its portfolio, including genetically matched disease models and cardiac cells intended for different experimental uses. The company describes applications ranging from screening to customer-built three-dimensional models, giving cardiac researchers several ways to use a related cell supply.

In October, ioAstrocytes 2.0 extended its work on combined neuron-astrocyte cultures. Developed with researcher feedback, the cells are intended for reproducible cultures and functional assays, including multi-electrode arrays. That gives a concrete example of portfolio expansion following an experimental workflow: the relevant purchase includes how cell types work together in the model being studied.

Those releases make the access strategy more tangible than a promise to serve every part of biology. A heart-disease researcher and a neuroscientist need different models and different evidence about their behaviour. The value of a broader catalogue depends on each product finding an appropriate place in those particular investigations.

The wider drug-discovery thesis includes AI-generated candidates and interest in alternatives to animal experiments. CEO Emma Pepperell links those developments to demand for consistent human cells. That is management's explanation of the opportunity, rather than a measured allocation of sales growth to AI or proof that any cell model can stand in for every other experimental system.

The leadership connects the science to the buying decision

Pepperell became CEO in June after serving as VP Commercial, having joined bit.bio in 2024 following a decade at Abcam. Her background combines an Oxford DPhil in Clinical Laboratory Sciences with experience building the commercial operation around research tools. Milner's involvement puts another Abcam connection in the financing, without implying that either person's prior success guarantees the outcome here.

CTO Sejla Salic-Hainzl brings functional genomics and cell-model development into that leadership picture. Founder Mark Kotter remains on the board, while the company's historical record also identifies Florian Schuster as co-founder. Those founding roles belong to the company's history; the current operating leadership is Pepperell and Salic-Hainzl.

The portfolio and service decisions put the next stage of commercial work close to the laboratory bench. When a customer wants to investigate another cell type or run a more involved screen, bit.bio wants to be able to carry more of that request. The Series D finances the effort to make its expanding biological capabilities available in forms that research teams can put to work.