"LinkZill Technology" Secures Tens of Millions of Yuan in Series A Financing, Breaking Through Existing Challenges in DNA Synthesis with TFT Semiconductor Technology | 36Kr Exclusive
Written by Jingzhi
36Kr has learned that LinkZill Technology has recently completed a tens of millions of yuan Series A financing round, which was exclusively invested by Bininxing Ventures. This round of financing will be used to accelerate the delivery of TFT life science products and the expansion of the global market.
In 2019, LinkZill Technology was established in Hangzhou and formed an interdisciplinary team, attempting to use TFT (Thin Film Transistor) semiconductor technology to improve the efficiency of life sciences, especially the most upstream issues such as DNA synthesis. Currently, it has developed a "desktop TFT-DNA synthesizer" device. According to the introduction of LinkZill Technology to 36Kr, through this device, "it is possible to rapidly synthesize oligonucleotide microarrays and oligonucleotide pools with various fluxes, balanced loads, and leading lengths, thereby reducing costs and shortening the delivery time."
At the genetic level, "reading - writing - modifying", that is, sequencing - synthesis - editing, are three important basic technologies. Among them, the gene sequencing field has given birth to industry giants such as Illumina and BGI and many downstream service providers. The rapid development of directions such as AI pharmaceuticals, synthetic biology, and multi-omics has significantly increased the demand for high-throughput and low-cost DNA synthesis.
Previously, the high-throughput synthesis technology of oligonucleotide microarrays and oligonucleotide pools was still a bottleneck problem. Suppliers are scarce worldwide, and the product prices are expensive and the delivery cycle is long; at the same time, existing technologies often simply pursue high throughput, and the load of their synthetic products is difficult to meet the needs of most life science applications.
In response to many industry pain points, LinkZill Technology takes "DNA synthesis technology with flexible flux and flexible load" as the first industrialization direction. "TFT semiconductors have the characteristics of high throughput, large area, and low cost. By building three basic capabilities of'microarray reaction control', 'picoliter droplet manipulation', and 'in situ signal sensing', we can achieve three tasks of reaction system construction, reaction process control, and reaction result detection on a single chip, thereby improving the efficiency of the entire process," Feng Linrun, the CEO of LinkZill Technology, once introduced its technical logic to 36Kr.
In 2023, LinkZill Technology launched the desktop TFT-DNA synthesizer, which precisely utilizes the excellent microarray reaction control capability of TFT semiconductors. After the launch of the TFT-DNA synthesizer, it is also developing a more integrated life science device. By integrating the construction of a high-throughput reaction system, the precise parallel control of the reaction process, and the real-time sensing of the reaction results into the same device, it achieves a high degree of integration and labor reduction. At the same time, it attempts to reduce the cost of reagent consumables by more than two orders of magnitude.
At the present stage, in the delivery aspect, LinkZill Technology has achieved commercialization from terminal equipment, chip consumables to synthetic products, completed the delivery of the angel customer for three product forms: oligonucleotide microarrays, oligonucleotide pools, and genes, and launched the first standardized product - TrueRay TruArray™ Std 4K high-throughput oligonucleotide microarray. In addition, synthetic product products such as 4K flux oligonucleotide pools and 65K to 1M flux oligonucleotide microarrays are also under development and are expected to be listed this year.
LinkZill Technology TrueRay TruArray™ Std 4K High-throughput Oligonucleotide Microarray
In 2023, LinkZill Technology invested in the construction of the Hangzhou Thin Film Transistor Semiconductor Research and Development Center and set up a research and development and business center in Cambridge, UK. According to the company, "At present, it has provided services to more than 300 customers worldwide, covering more than 20 countries and regions."
The high-throughput DNA synthesis technology has been in existence for twenty years, but due to the limitations of the existing technology selection and product specifications, the downstream application scenarios are still rather limited - especially in the face of the demand for the construction, screening, and evolution of large-scale gene libraries driven by the explosion of AI-assisted protein design technology, it is still struggling. Starting with the oligonucleotide pool synthesis technology, the LinkZill Technology team is attempting to build a more complete tool chain to cover the processes of library design, gene splicing, sequence verification and screening, and protein expression and evolution, breaking through the time, manpower, and cost bottlenecks in the field of life sciences and facilitating the accelerated arrival of the AI for Science era.