All Access

Biotech Deals

Biotech Deals Alert

Alert

Protein sequencing startup Pumpkinseed raised a $20 million Series A, executive chairwoman Jen Dionne tells Axios Pro exclusively.

What's next: The startup plans to raise a $30 million to $40 million Series B within the next year.

Follow the money: NFX and Future Ventures led the Series A, and Base4, ADVentures and Stanford University participated.

Pumpkinseed has now raised $35 million in dilutive and non-dilutive funding to date, with 18 to 24 months of runway, Dionne says.

Proceeds will help Pumpkinseed expand its technical capabilities and onboard new customers across biopharma and biosecurity.

How it works: Palo Alto-based Pumpkinseed uses nanophotonic chips to read proteins and produce direct, high-resolution proteomic data that can be used for drug discovery and clinical trial patient selection.

While scientists are very good at reading DNA and RNA, proteins are far harder to interpret even though they are the part of biology that actually carries out functions, Dionne explains.

What they're saying: "We view ourselves as the biology mining company," Dionne says. "We're very quickly extracting valuable information from biological samples … that otherwise would have been difficult to extract."

Zoom in: Genentech is currently using Pumpkinseed's peptide sequencing platform to help develop vaccines for metastatic cancer, Dionne says.

Pumpkinseed has secured more than $12 million in "near-term" revenue through contracts with Genentech, as well as government agencies DARPA and BARDA.

Catch up quick: Pumpkinseed, named after a colorful fresh water fish that mimics iridescent silicon photonic chips, spun out of Stanford in 2021.

The bottom line: "It's a big market, and an interesting market, especially now with the age of AI," says NFX general partner Omri Amirav-Drory.

Exclusive: Pumpkinseed raises $20M Series A for protein sequencing

The startup plans to raise a $30 million to $40 million Series B within the next year.

Illustration of a hand holding a microscope slide with a liquid sample forming a dollar sign.

Protein sequencing startup Pumpkinseed raised a $20 million Series A, executive chairwoman Jen Dionne tells Axios Pro exclusively.What&#x27;s next: The startup plans to raise a $30 million to $40 million Series B within the next year.

topics

politics-policy

epstein-files

donald-trump

2026-midterm-elections

immigration

behind-the-curtain

race-and-equity

technology

privacy-tech-regulation

automation-and-ai

tiktok-news

big-tech

social-media

cybersecurity

economy

social-security

inflation

tariffs

federal-reserve

transportation

business

c-suite

retail-news

media

elon-musk

dealmaking

health

rfk-jr

drug-prices

axios-explains-abortion

public-health

world

israel

axios-explains-ukraine

iran

russia

china

energy-climate

nuclear-energy

climate-energy-policy

climate-change

extreme-weather

alternative-energy

electric-vehicles

science

emerging-tech

biomedicine

newsletters

charlotte

salt-lake-city

denver

boulder

kansas-city

austin

chicago

dallas

detroit

washington-dc

atlanta

indianapolis

nashville

nw-arkansas

columbus

richmond

san-francisco

boston

des-moines

houston

phoenix

miami

philadelphia

seattle

new-orleans

colorado-springs

huntsville

raleigh

san-antonio

twin-cities

pittsburgh

arapahoe

douglas

san-diego

tampa-bay

portland

cleveland

axios-local

axios-pro

axios-live

the-axios-show

Exclusive: Pumpkinseed raises $20M Series A for protein sequencing

What to read next