Biotech labs are facing a quiet crisis—one that’s stalling innovation and slowing scientific discovery. Around 90% of lab instruments come from different manufacturers, each using proprietary interfaces. As a result, scientists spend months building custom integrations for every new device, costing time, money, and momentum. UniteLabs, a Munich-based startup, is on a mission to change that. And with €2.77 million in new funding, they’re accelerating toward their goal of transforming biotech lab automation.
Led by NAP (formerly Cavalry Ventures), with participation from PUSH, Acurio Ventures, OMA Business Angels, and LANA Ventures. The pre-seed round brings UniteLabs’ total funding to €3.37 million since its founding in 2022. The funding will help the startup connect 650 lab instruments to the cloud. Enabling real-time control, data integration, and AI-driven research at scale.
The biotech industry’s reliance on disconnected, closed-interface lab instruments is more than a technical inconvenience—it’s a major roadblock to innovation. Researchers are forced to spend up to 50% of their time manually integrating systems or troubleshooting connectivity instead of doing what they’re trained to do: drive scientific progress.
“Every new instrument brings a new integration headache,” explains Robert Zechlin, UniteLabs co-founder and co-CEO. “Biotech labs want to embrace AI, but most don’t have the infrastructure to make it happen. Devices can’t talk to each other, and critical data is trapped in silos.”
Founded by Lukas Bromig, Julian Willand, and Robert Zechlin, UniteLabs was born out of this challenge. During his PhD, Bromig built open-source tools to streamline lab workflows—tools that quickly attracted attention from research teams facing similar hurdles. UniteLabs took that foundation and turned it into a fully-fledged platform aimed at fixing the core problem: broken communication between lab instruments.
UniteLabs has developed the first comprehensive lab operating system that enables full interoperability across devices, regardless of brand or function. Using SiLA 2 standards (Standardization in Lab Automation), the platform simplifies lab connectivity by making closed. Proprietary interfaces cloud-compatible and AI-ready.
This means scientists can now plug devices into a single system. And get instant access to control, monitor, and automate workflows—no custom code, no months-long integration projects.
“Our platform cuts integration time from months to minutes,” Zechlin says. “We provide real-time control, unified data access, and support for cloud-based automation, bringing biotech research into the modern era.”
Initially, UniteLabs is focusing on liquid handlers, which are widely used in experiments from DNA sequencing to drug discovery. These devices, while critical, are often the biggest source of bottlenecks due to manual handling and low throughput. UniteLabs has already built 40 connectors, and by the end of this year, they aim to support 90 instruments. Enabling automation for nearly half of all biotech labs worldwide.
The long-term vision is bigger than just instrument connectivity. UniteLabs wants to lay the groundwork for AI-powered biotech labs, where data flows freely and decisions can be made in real time. This includes closed-loop research systems that allow experiments to self-correct and evolve using machine learning.
Unlike other lab software that focuses only on data or single-use applications, UniteLabs offers full-stack automation—devices can be connected, controlled, monitored, and optimized from one platform. This allows labs to use their resources more efficiently and push forward faster on discoveries in drug development, diagnostics, and synthetic biology.
“What makes UniteLabs different is our ability to unify closed systems, bring low-level access to the cloud, and open the door to real lab automation,” Zechlin explains. “It’s not just about communication. It’s about setting a shared technical language that makes AI truly functional in biotech R&D.”
With its fresh capital, UniteLabs will expand its engineering and customer success teams, work closely with pilot customers, and build an additional 50 connectors, targeting the most common instruments in biotech labs. Their goal is to provide the missing infrastructure needed to accelerate research and position themselves as the global standard in biotech lab automation.
“We want to be the backbone of modern biotech,” Zechlin adds. “That means making labs smarter, faster, and more connected than ever before.”
NAP Managing Partner Claude Ritter agrees: “Biotech labs are on the brink of a major transformation. AI is opening new doors, but without connectivity, it’s useless. UniteLabs is solving the right problem at the right time. They’re building the infrastructure that will define the future of research.”
