Science robotics startup Opentrons Inc. today said it has raised $10 million in a seed round from Khosla Ventures, Lerer Hippeau and Y Combinator, and took the opportunity to announce its platform as well.

Founded in 2013 and a Y Combinator graduate, Opentrons offers a next-generation robotics platform that offers a personal liquid-handling robot for biotech companies. The company’s robotic hardware allows biologists to automate moving liquids, a process called “micropipetting,” freeing up time and reducing errors.

“Biologists are poised to solve some of the world’s most significant problems, yet up to 90 percent of them still run experiments manually because cost and complexity prohibit their access to automation,” the company explained. “Opentrons believes lab automation should be affordable, customizable, and easy to use. Starting with its lab robots that automate hundreds of applications with the speed and accuracy of tools 10 times the price, we aim to free biologists from the tedious and error-prone process of manual pipetting to speed up scientific discovery and progress.”

Opentron’s newest lab robot, the unimaginatively named OT-2, the successor to the OT-1, is described as being small enough to fit on a lab bench. The new robot further simplifies the options available in the OT-1 by allowing biologists to run an experiment with the click of a button. OT-2 also includes access to a library of verified protocols developed by hundreds of scientists, allowing biologists to start with pre-programmed protocols out of the box.

Along with Protocol Designer, a visual design program that allows biologists to create and customize their own protocols, OT-2 also supports an open application programming interface to allow it to integrate with devices such as smart home hubs.

“Alexa: Mix the anthrax with the Asian bird-flu and tell me if it makes a world-destroying superbug” may sound like science fiction, but it’s possible with the OT-2 linked to an Amazon Echo.

Opentrons said it has doubled its customer base and employee headcount every six months since its founding and today has hundreds of scientists and institutions using Opentrons robotics, including 70 percent of the 10 largest pharmaceutical companies and 90 percent of the top 50 biology research universities, including the Mayo Clinic, Stanford University, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“Our mission is to democratize sophisticated biotech tools, and we are starting with lab robots,” Will Canine, co-founder and chief product officer at Opentrons, said in a statement. The company said it will use the funding support the development of OT-2 robots and maintain its pace of customer and company growth.

Photo: Opentrons