Lightcast Raises $27 Million and Adds Industry Veteran to Accelerate Commercialization of Envisia™ Platform

CAMBRIDGE, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lightcast, a pioneering life science tools company focused on functional single-cell analysis, today announced the closing of a $27 million financing raised from existing investors. The financing was led by ARCH Venture Partners with participation from M Ventures, Illumina Ventures, +ND Capital, Longwall Ventures, and OMX Ventures.

This financing is a strong validation of both our technology and the momentum we are seeing with customers, and it will enable us to deliver a commercial platform that can meaningfully accelerate how new therapies are discovered and developed.

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Proceeds from the financing will support the full commercial release of Lightcast’s Envisia™ benchtop platform in 2026, enabling the company to deepen strategic collaborations, expand its portfolio of single-cell functional assays, and achieve critical technical, manufacturing, and software readiness milestones. During the past year, Lightcast has successfully expanded its early access program, working with leading pharmaceutical and academic institutions to validate platform performance, optimize workflows, and broaden applications across antibody discovery, cell therapy, and functional biology.

“Lightcast’s early commercial traction underscores the strength of its platform and the size of the opportunity ahead,” said Sean Kendall, partner at ARCH Venture Partners. “We are increasing our investment because the Envisia platform addresses a clear gap in the market, bringing real-time, function-focused cellular analysis out of specialized labs and onto the benchtop, where it can significantly accelerate antibody discovery, oncology therapeutics, and cell line development and production.”

To further accelerate commercialization, Lightcast has also appointed industry veteran Brad Crutchfield as an advisor to the board of directors. Mr. Crutchfield brings deep experience scaling breakthrough single-cell technologies, most notably as chief commercial officer at 10x Genomics. He currently serves as a board member and advisor to several leading life sciences companies, including Mission Bio, Broken String Biosciences, Partillion Bioscience, Pixelgen Technologies, and Alamar Biosciences.

Mr. Crutchfield stated: “The Envisia platform represents an important evolution in single-cell analysis, enabling researchers to move beyond inference and directly measure function at the level of individual cells. Platforms that deliver this kind of insight have the potential to significantly accelerate discovery and reshape how new therapies are developed. I’m excited to support Lightcast as it brings this capability to a broad set of customers around the world.”

Unlike conventional single-cell analysis methods that rely on genomic or transcriptomic data to infer function, the Envisia platform captures rich functional data directly. It is powered by Lightcast’s proprietary light-controlled droplet manipulation technology, which interrogates tens of thousands of picoliter-scale droplets with exceptional speed, precision, and flexibility. Researchers can now run highly controlled, sequential single-cell functional screening assays to rapidly advance antibody discovery workflows. The platform is also being used for exploring cell-cell interactions and for broader immunology and oncology applications.

“Single-cell analysis technologies have transformed how we characterize cells, but they have not fully captured how they behave,” said Paul Loeffen, PhD, CEO of Lightcast. “Our Envisia platform was built to deliver deep functional cellular insights. This financing is a strong validation of both our technology and the momentum we are seeing with customers, and it will enable us to deliver a commercial platform that can meaningfully accelerate how new therapies are discovered and developed.”

The complete Envisia commercial workflow will include advanced instrumentation, intelligent software, a purpose-built cartridge system, and assay kits optimized for a range of cell types, assay formats, and research applications. To learn more, visit https://www.lightcast.bio/technology/envisia-platform.

About Lightcast

Lightcast aims to unleash new capabilities within the single-cell analysis field by developing a more accessible, scalable, and flexible platform for scientists in basic, translational, and applied research. These capabilities will empower new biological discoveries and accelerate the development of novel drugs, therapies, and biologics. Founded in 2019 and based in Cambridge, UK, Lightcast has invented a technology that uses rays of light to control picoliter-scale droplets for functional analysis of individual cells. For more information, visit www.lightcast.bio.

Lightcast, the Lightcast logo, and Envisia are trademarks of Lightcast Discovery Ltd.