Enzyme development platform Allozymes (HAX 2019) recently closed a $5M seed round led by Xora Innovation with participation from SOSV’s HAX, TI Platform Management, and Entrepreneur First.

In a TechCrunch feature, Allozymes CEO Peyman Salehian explained that his company’s platform will drastically accelerate the process of discovering new enzymes while cutting cost. The effectiveness and affordability of the platform will allevaite the long and complicated search for enzymes.

Founded by researchers at the National University of Singapore, the Allozymes platform is completely contained in a benchtop device while creating almost no waste. The device puts substrates, cells, and other ingredients in a droplet placed in a microfluidic system instead of a culture dish. Within the droplet, a reaction occurs and is incubated, tracked, collected, and tested in far less time than a larger sample typically takes. While Allozymes is not selling the device, it offers an enzyme engineering as-a-service model “cut to size” depending on the scope of the project.

“Biotransformation is in huge demand on this side of the world,” Salehian told TechCrunch. “Chemical, agriculture, and food companies need to do it, but no platform company can deliver these services. So we tried to fill that gap.”