"New era" for Milan biotech hero Arsenale Bioyards after scoring €9m in funding

With a broad goal of redefining scalable biomanufacturing, Milan-based Arsenale Bioyards has just announced it is taking in €9m ($10m) to work on its mission, after successfully closing its first seed financing round.

Arsenale's platform combines advanced lab and industrial-scale bioreactors with AI-driven software, optimising fermentation processes and increasing the speed of scaling from lab to industrial scale.

In simpler terms, its business model is about making it easier and cheaper to use microorganisms (such as yeast) to produce useful materials. Until now, this process (called precision fermentation) has been too expensive for many industries outside of medicine. Arsenale's breakthrough is a system that it says cuts costs dramatically - by up to 90 percent. Their approach uses collections of smaller production units (called bioyards) instead of building one massive facility.

In a news release, the company said it hoped to transform the $200 billion (€190 billion) biomanufacturing market – while driving "a new industrial trajectory towards a sustainable, biology-driven future."

"Arsenale is not only imagining the bio-economy of the future—we are building it today, with operational facilities and proprietary technology," said Massimo Portincaso, CEO and co-founder of Arsenale Bioyards. "This funding reinforces our ability to drive measurable change and underscores our aspiration to build a new generative, biology-driven industrial paradigm."

The seed funding round was led by Berlin-based impact investors Planet A Ventures, alongside Nordic VC firm byFounders. Italian venture firms CDP Ventures and Grey Silo Ventures also contributed, alongside global firms Acequia Capital (founded by Microsoft senior executive Hank Vigil), Plug N Play, and several industrial family offices.

Writing on LinkedIn following the announcement, Planet A co-founder Fridtjof Detzner commented: "Arsenale's technology will accelerate the commercialisation of bio-manufacturing—ushering in a new era of innovation across industries like food, cosmetics, and beyond."

The funding announcement comes amid growing momentum in the European biomanufacturing sector. Other companies in the space include Italian bioreactor manufacturer Solaris Biotech, which provides essential hardware, and UK-based CPI offering bioprocessing development services.