LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y. — Laboratory robotics company Opentrons announced a $40 million Series E financing on October 29, 2026, to expand the hardware and software needed for AI-directed scientific experiments. Healthcare investor Avego led the round, with participation from BroadOak Capital Partners.

The company says the proceeds will support robotic instrumentation, AI-assisted protocol creation, experimental data infrastructure and expansion into additional markets. Opentrons reported more than 11,000 robots deployed in over 80 countries; those figures are company disclosures rather than independently audited installation counts. Its official announcement did not disclose a new company valuation.

Opentrons demonstrates its existing Flex high-throughput next-generation sequencing workstation. This product video predates the funding announcement.

From Robot Pipettes to AI-Directed Experiments

Opentrons makes programmable benchtop robots that move liquids between tubes and microplates, a repetitive step in biological research. Its Flex platform uses interchangeable pipettes, deck modules and an optional robotic gripper to move labware. Scientists can design workflows through software or the company’s open API-driven platform.

The larger goal is a feedback loop in which AI proposes an experiment, robotic systems perform the protocol, measurements are captured consistently and software helps plan the next round. That would address a bottleneck between increasingly fast computational discovery and slower physical validation.

Company-reported deployment milestones: over 10,000 robots in February and over 11,000 in October 2026. These are rounded lower bounds, not exact counts or a measured growth rate.

A Growing Robotics Infrastructure Race

In February, Opentrons announced work with NVIDIA’s Isaac and Cosmos tools to generate training data for physical-AI robotics. The new funding aims to broaden that automation infrastructure beyond individual liquid-handling tasks.

BitcoinVersus.Tech has also reported on Multiply Labs’ $75 million robotics financing, robots performing real commercial tasks and robot-training data infrastructure.

Opentrons introduces the existing Flex Prep workflow for automated sample transfers, dilutions and plate preparation—not a newly launched Series E product.

What the Funding Does Not Prove

A deployed pipetting robot is not necessarily an autonomous laboratory. Fully closed-loop research still needs validated protocols, reliable measurements, quality controls and scientific oversight. Opentrons has not published a consolidated independent benchmark showing that its installed fleet performs experiments without human intervention.

The next measurable milestones will be broader instrument integration, faster protocol development and reproducible results across laboratory sites—not the financing announcement alone.

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