BioLinker's $1.7M round backs a robotic Amazon lab for AI training data

BioLinker, a Brazilian biotech startup founded in 2018 by scientists from the University of São Paulo, has raised $1.7M in a new funding round. Axcell invested $1.4M of that sum, while FAPESP contributed about $240K through its PIPE Phase 2 program.

The company develops and manufactures recombinant proteins using synthetic biology and genetic engineering. Its products support research, diagnostics, and industrial applications.

The new capital is earmarked for an automated laboratory at the Amazon BioBusiness Center in Manaus. According to the company, the facility will use robotics to generate biological data at scale for training AI models, and to expand DNA production in Brazil. BioLinker also plans to double its team from 12 to 24 employees.

The round remains open. BioLinker is seeking an international investor to support its expansion ahead of a planned Series A within the next two years. The company generates recurring revenue and expects the new capital to fund three years of operations.

The funding mix pairs a private investor in Axcell with a public research foundation in FAPESP, whose contribution arrives through the PIPE Phase 2 program — a structure that lets the startup draw on both commercial and grant-based capital as it builds out physical infrastructure in the Amazon rather than a conventional software stack.

That infrastructure is the crux of the pitch. Rather than selling only the recombinant proteins it produces today, BioLinker is positioning the Manaus lab as a data engine: robots running experiments at a volume that would be impractical by hand, generating the biological datasets that AI models need. DNA production in Brazil is the second half of that plan, extending the company's manufacturing footprint beyond its current protein work.

Whether the strategy lands will depend in part on the international investor BioLinker is still courting. The company has given itself a two-year runway to a Series A, with three years of operations covered by the capital now in hand.