🔬⚙️ Issue #135: A Fully Automated Lab-in-a-box For Biologists
Trilobio's recent $8M seed round to bring whole-lab automation to everyday biologists and Living Carbon's market-shaping agreement with Microsoft for 1.4 million tons of carbon removal credits
Good morning & happy Thursday. Biology and climate innovation are getting serious upgrades thanks to Claremont College founders. As more and more startups bridge science and engineering, we’re seeing real momentum from the lab bench to the forest floor.
This week, we highlight Claremont grad Roya Amini-Naieni’s biotech startup Trilobio and their recent $8M seed round, bringing whole-lab automation to everyday biologists. Maddie Hall and Living Carbon also announced their major contract with Microsoft—one of the largest tech-backed reforestation carbon credit purchases to date.
It’s a Claremont world out there. 👇
~ Josh, Miles, Matthew, Pat
👤 Community Spotlight: Roya Amini-Naieni & Trilobio
Roya Amini-Naieni (HMC) is the co-founder and CEO of Trilobio – a fully-integrated robotics and synthetic biology platform that automates every step of the research process. Trilobio was created to improve synthetic biology and life science research processes by building robotic lab automation modules coupled with an "app store" to package and distribute lab protocols as code. Roya and her co-founder, Maximillian Schommer, were awarded a spot on the 2024 Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Earlier this year, Roya was also recognized by the Future Minds Network as one of its 25 Under 25.
Recently, Trilobio announced the close of their oversubscribed $8M Seed round led by Initialized Capital. To date, the company has raised over $11M from top institutions, including StoryHouse Ventures, Julian Capital, 1517 Fund, Initialized Capital, Lowercarbon Capital, and others. They are starting to deploy their whole laboratory automation platform at leading biology labs across the United States.
Trilobio Announces $8M Seed Round to Reimagine Lab Automation
It has been a fast-paced and incredibly rewarding journey to build this company with my co-founder Max and the rest of the team over the past 3 years: We built our revolutionary Trilobot: a modular lab robot that auto-calibrates itself and can use a limitless variety of tools and deck instruments (among many other things); We developed the Trilobio OS research engine that allows you to design research through a no-code GUI and then determines and executes all the details; We deployed our platform at leading labs across the country; And now, with this funding, we are gearing up for the rapid deployment of our platform across the industry.
Now, with all that in mind, I’d love to share the history of how Trilobio came into existence and the experiences that shaped our vision for the future of biology.
A Passion for Biology
I distinctly remember reading about Jennifer Doudna’s discovery of CRISPR-Cas9. It shook the world. Suddenly, people were talking about how we could engineer organisms to create novel materials, develop cures for genetic diseases that cause immense suffering, and had the chance to usher in a new era of human health and well-being that had only been dreamed of in science fiction. Biology was the future, and I knew at that moment that I wanted to be a biologist.
However it is not easy for a 13 year old to build out a sterile lab environment, fill it with expensive equipment, and recruit a team of dedicated biologists. Undeterred, I began devising different ways to get into the field immediately. Ultimately, my master plan was to sneak my way onto a college research team by posing as a student. It actually worked! I worked as hard as I could for the team, in part to not give away myself as a stowaway, but also because I felt like I was living my dream.
I helped build biosensors by genetically engineering yeast to detect shellfish toxins in raw seafood and helped develop more affordable chemotherapies with bioreactors and GMO microbes. Of course, there were less glamorous aspects of the job. For instance, I spent countless hours on weekends caring for my cells, adjusting waterbaths, and counting colonies. The lab equipment wasn’t the best, but I was grateful just to be able to do work I was passionate about. This was my first experience in a lab, and it all seemed new to me and normal to everyone else. This was just biology research.
The Journey to Trilobio
Eventually, however, I was found out by the college administrators. Instead of giving up on my dream of doing biology research, I decided to build my own biology lab for high school students. I raised money via a crowdfunding campaign and purchased lab equipment for the first time. In short, I was disappointed. Most of the research equipment was expensive, excessively manual and hard to use. Pipetting was all done manually, changing the settings of a machine required reading through a 50 page user manual, and materials needed to be moved between devices by people. It seemed that doing cutting edge science didn’t necessarily come with cutting edge equipment. If we needed cells fed every 8 hours, I’d be in at 4AM to feed them. If I needed to move liquids around countless plates every day, then it was just what needed to be done at an upstart lab like mine. This didn’t feel like the advanced science we dreamed of, but all the biologists I knew were doing the same thing.
When I was admitted to Harvey Mudd College, I was excited. Surely, now I’d have advanced technologies to support the biologists pushing the frontiers of science. I started another lab with a larger budget, and was able to buy my first lab robot. To my disappointment, I immediately learned that it wasn’t meant to be used by someone like me (a biologist). Standard research had to be programmed with thousands of lines of Python. It took longer to complete research with a robot than to do it by hand, not to mention recalibrating and adjusting to support even minor changes based on new insights or curiosity (the foundation of scientific discovery). On top of it all, the robots were completely unreliable. They would break down and take my time and research materials with it. I noticed that instead of freeing up my time, I was spending more time on average using robots than if I just did my work manually….
Read Roya’s full announcement to see how TriloBio is transforming biology labs with a no-code, plug-and-play robotic platform.👇
🚨Claremonster Call-Out: Maddie Hall & Living Carbon
Claremont grad and Forbes 30 Under 30 Maddie Hall (CMC ‘14) is the co-founder and CEO of Living Carbon – a biotech startup that leverages synthetic biology to enhance the carbon capture capabilities of trees. Living Carbon focuses on transforming degraded U.S. lands into productive, climate-positive ecosystems. Maddie started Living Carbon with a mission to rebalance the planet’s carbon cycle responsibly using the inherent power of plants. The company is now backed by leading climate investors, including Felicis, Lowercarbon, Toyota Ventures, and StoryHouse Ventures.
Living Carbon recently announced its agreement with Microsoft for 1.4 million tons of carbon removal credits, marking it as one of the largest tech-backed reforestation carbon credit purchases to date. The credits will stem from Living Carbon’s ambitious reforestation of 25,000 acres across Appalachia — much of it scarred by decades of coal mining.
By restoring these long-neglected landscapes, the company isn’t just removing carbon—it’s rebuilding biodiversity, rehabilitating soils and water systems, and injecting new economic activity into rural communities that have long been left behind.
“We’re proud to be working with Microsoft to advance high-quality reforestation and unlock the potential of some of the most challenging yet essential lands in the U.S.—not only for carbon removal, but also for restoring ecosystems and supporting the return of these lands to productivity.” - Maddie Hall
💼 Who’s Hiring?: Ultra, Tandem, Fifth Door, & Marble Health
Serial founders and Claremont alumniJon Miller Schwartz (HMC ‘13),Oliver Ortlieb (HMC ‘12), and Max Friefeld (HMC ‘13) are the co-founders ofUltra, a robotics startup that is building intelligent industrial robots for American warehouses and factories. Designed for rapid integration, Ultra's robots leverage teleoperation and autonomy to learn new tasks quickly. Jon, Oliver, and Max are also the previous co-founders of the robotic 3D printing factoryVoodoo Manufacturing (acq. by 3D Tech) and online 3D product marketplaceLayer By Layer (acq. by MakerBot). Ultra is backed by StoryHouse, Y Combinator, and Pioneer Fund, and they are looking for a Robotics Engineer to join their founding team.
If you’re interested to learn more, here’s a recent interview where Jon discusses Ultra's mission and their unique technology, the importance of adaptable robots versus traditional static systems, and the role of AI in making these advancements possible.
Claremont alum Brendan Suh (CMC ‘19) is the co-founder of Tandem, a marketplace that helps companies share office space. Since launching in late 2023, Tandem has helped over 300 companies find, lease, and share office space in SF and NYC. Their online marketplace uses AI to make the office leasing process less tedious. Earlier this year, the company announced its $6.1M Seed round led by Collide Capital and 1984 Ventures, with backing from StoryHouse Ventures, Y Combinator, and others. Tandem has helped match nearly 100 companies and has seen double-digit month-over-month growth. They are currently hiring for a Venture Community Manager in SF.
Serial Claremont entrepreneur Daniel Kan (CMC) is the founder and CEO of StoryHouse portfolio company Fifth Door, whichis developing a next-generation board game platform that allows game designers and players to engage with tabletop games in a digital-physical hybrid format. Dan was previously the Chief Product Officer and co-founder of the unicorn autonomous vehicle company Cruise, which was acquired by General Motors for over $1B in 2016. Fifth Door recently closed its seed round, and they are looking to hire Founding Engineers to join the team. Check the opening below if you’re interested in creating the future of online games.
Daniel Ross (PO ‘11) and Jake Sussman, the previous founders of mental health unicorn Headway, are the co-founders of mental health startup Marble Health. Marble is rethinking how students access mental health care and is on a mission to massively increase access to timely, preventative care for all kids early in their mental health journey. They are backed by top investors, such as StoryHouse, Khosla Ventures, and Town Hall Ventures. Dan and Jake are looking for early employees to join their founding team.
Check out the other 2,000+ open jobs at 290+ Claremont-affiliated companies here on our Storyboard. Plus, create a profile and enter your preferences to get alerted to new job postings relevant to you, be they the 350+ remote jobs, 200+ internships, or 600+ part-time positions available. We’ve published research that shows that Claremont-founded companies that disproportionately hire Claremont talent outperform — so pay attention, Claremonsters!
If any of these roles catch your eye 👀 , apply and mention StoryHouse Review. Or, if you are an employer looking to hire tip-top Claremont talent, fill out this form to have your jobs featured.
🗣️ Conversations on the Interwebz:
This week’s top read 🔥
Serial Claremont entrepreneur Xiaoyin Qu (PO) was recently featured by Inc Magazine after she announced stepping down as the CEO of her company heyBoss AI, and being replaced by Astra, an AI leader her company has built, and the world’s first AI CEO. In this interview, Xiaoyin talks about why they decided to replace her with Astra and if other companies should follow suit. Xiaoyin is the founder of heyBoss AI, the world’s first AI-run dev agency for non-coders. Since their launch, their AI CEO Astra has helped customers from 100+ countries build websites, apps, and games.
This week’s must-watch 📺
Claremont entrepreneur Marty Weiner (HMC ‘03) is a founding member of Pinterest and Reddit’s first CTO. Marty shares the ups and downs of growing startups, from small teams to massive organizations, while keeping trust and culture alive. He talks about leading during chaotic growth, the lessons he learned, and his latest startup, VerifyYou – a platform that leverages robust identity verification to reintroduce trust to online interactions. VerifyYou connects your government identity to one centralized account so you can easily access all of your social and payment accounts.
This week’s Claremont financing 💸
Congratulations to serial Claremont founder Robbie Figueroa (PI)and Maza on their successful exit. The a16z-backed company was recently acquired by Flex, a startup that offers personal finance software for business owners, in a $40M deal. Maza is a finance app aimed at native + bilingual Spanish speakers in the US.
This week’s top listen 🎧
Claremont grad and StoryHouse portfolio founder Sagar Batchu (HMC ’15) sat down with Andrew Zigler on the Dev Interrupted podcast to discuss how API design is evolving in the age of AI agents. He talked about how the industry is shifting from traditional developer experience to what some call “agent experience.” Sagar is the co-founder and CEO of Speakeasy, a developer-first API DevEx platform that enables developers to offer best-in-class self-service experiences for API consumers.
Claremont grad Brian Feth (KGI)was on the SciMed Biotech podcast to share his insights into the challenges and breakthroughs in controlling cell environments, which are crucial for advancing therapeutic efficacy and safety. He also delves into the implications of these advancements for solid tumor-targeting therapies and the significant impact they hold for future cancer treatments. Brian is the CEO and founder of Xcell Biosciences, a scalable expansion platform designed to manufacture cell therapies that work effectively in tumor microenvironments.
Everything else you need to know💡
StoryHouse portfolio company Fastbreak AI was featured by Forbes for its innovative scheduling platform that uses AI to solve complex logistics challenges in sports leagues, from TGL to youth travel teams. Forbes highlighted Fastbreak’s ability to reduce scheduling time by over 90%, its partnerships with major leagues and venues (like the NBA, NHL, and MLS), and its expansion into youth sports as a scalable SaaS solution. John Stewart, Chris Groer, and Claremont alum Timothy Carnes (HMC ‘05) are the co-founders of Fastbreak AI.
Claremont alum and StoryHouse portfolio founder Abasi Ene-Obong (KGI) was listed as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in global health. Abasi is the founder and CEO of Syndicate Bio, a health technology company building the world’s most diverse human health datasets and applying AI/ML to usher in a new age of human discoveries and inclusive care globally.
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💸 Solving Business Problems With AI…..In today’s tech-driven world, artificial intelligence has become a key enabler of business success. Primetime AI’s co-founder and CTO Boris Lapouga was recently interviewed by Authority Magazine, where he shares insights on how AI—especially multi-agent systems—can automate business tasks like recruitment and data integration without replacing human roles. Primetime is an AI startup focused on integrating AI agents into digital workspaces to enhance team collaboration and efficiency. Claremont alum Zach Lupei (HMC ‘08)is the co-founder and CEO of Primetime AI.
🧠 A Better Data Engine For Brain Science…..As experiments become more data-intensive, with complex inputs and heavy computational analysis, researchers are finding it harder to scale their work while maintaining accuracy and consistency. In this article, Claremont alum Monty Kosma (HMC ‘88)talks about how neuroscience labs are transforming their data operations and preparing for AI with tools inspired by modern software engineering. Montyis the co-founder and CMO of DataJoint – an operating platform that helps science teams reach reliable findings faster, with reproducible data pipelines, ML-powered workflows, and data ready for human and AI analysis
