Amplifold GmbH, a spin-off from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), announced on December 10 the closing of an oversubscribed €5 million seed financing round to industrialize its DNA-origami–based signal amplification platform for lateral flow assays (LFAs). The round is co-led by Matterwave Ventures and XISTA Science Ventures, with participation from Bayern Kapital, b2venture and Becker Ventures (part of Labor Becker Group).

With the financing, Amplifold is moving to the Innovation and Startup Center Biotechnology in Martinsried. As one of Europe’s leading biotech startup hubs, the IZB offers excellent infrastructure and proximity to top-tier academic and clinical partners. The funds will be used to expand product development and regulatory activities and to bring Amplifold’s first in vitro diagnostic product to IVDR approval in Europe.

Amplifold’s technology was developed by Dr. Maximilian Urban and colleagues in the lab of Prof. Liedl, and published in a recent Nature Communications^[1] paper.  They demonstrated that DNA-origami nanostructures can boost the sensitivity of standard LFAs by up to two orders of magnitude while preserving their simplicity and low cost. The company’s vision is captured in its slogan: “Affordability meets Accuracy”. With support from GoBio Initial, the Medical Valley Award, and EXIST Forschungstransfer, the team successfully realized their goal of combining high sensitivity with low-cost testing.

“Lateral flow tests have transformed access to diagnostics, but their sensitivity has traditionally lagged behind central lab systems,” said Dr. Maximilian Urban, Amplifold co-founder, co-inventor and managing director. “DNA-origami signal amplification allows low-cost rapid tests to approach instrument-level sensitivity without changing the basic format.”

Dr. Enzo Kopperger, co-founder and managing director, added:
“What makes Amplifold unique is that we can deliver up to roughly 100-fold higher analytical sensitivity at essentially the same cost of goods as conventional LFAs. Our architecture is designed to plug into existing manufacturing workflows, which means partners can rapidly upgrade their assays instead of redeveloping their product lines from scratch.”

Prof. Dr. Tim Liedl, Professor of Experimental Physics at LMU and head of the nanoengineering lab from which Amplifold emerged, commented:
“Over the past years, our group has worked to turn DNA origami from a beautiful scientific concept into a robust nanoscale engineering toolbox. The Amplifold team has been at the forefront of translating these advances into real diagnostic impact. It is very rewarding to see a technology that was developed and nurtured in our lab now moving into the clinic and the market, supported by a strong syndicate of investors.”

Amplifold sees itself exceptionally well positioned, with a truly disruptive technology, a strong interdisciplinary team, and a syndicate of investors who understand both deep tech and diagnostics. The management team will be complemented by Dr. Federico Bürsgens, who has held senior leadership roles in the in vitro diagnostics (IVD) space for more than 15 years and will join the company in 2026 as CEO.

On the investor side, Benedikt Kronberger, Partner at Matterwave Ventures, said:
“Amplifold is exactly the kind of industrial deep-tech company we look for: a fundamental breakthrough applied to a massive, existing market. The fact that this round was significantly oversubscribed speaks for the quality of the team and the commercial clarity of the opportunity. We’re delighted to support Amplifold and to join the board.”

Dr. Stephan Huber, Venture Partner at XISTA Science Ventures, added:
“Lateral flow tests are a powerful tool in principle. They scale well, they are inexpensive, they are available everywhere, and both lay people and health care staff can use them correctly without extensive training. Their main weakness has always been a lack of sensitivity. The COVID-19 pandemic showed their strengths and weaknesses very well. The lack of sensitivity is the one issue that has held the technology back. Amplifold addresses exactly this point with a DNA nanotechnology approach that lifts sensitivity while keeping the simple format that makes rapid tests so practical and scalable.”

Benedikt Kronberger of Matterwave and Stephan Huber of XISTA Ventures will both join Amplifold’s Board of Directors.

About Amplifold
Amplifold GmbH is a Munich-based LMU spin-off developing an ultrasensitive signal amplification platform for lateral flow immunoassays (LFAs). Using DNA-origami nanostructures as programmable adapters, Amplifold enables up to ~100-fold sensitivity improvements while preserving simplicity, robustness and low cost of strip-based tests. With the vision “Affordability meets Accuracy” and “nanoscale design. Global diagnostic impact”, Amplifold aims to become the technology leader for ultrasensitive LFAs in in vitro diagnostics and life sciences.

^[1] Heini Ijäs, Julian Trommler, Linh Nguyen, Stefan van Rest, Philipp Nickels, Tim Liedl & Maximilian Urban, DNA origami signal amplification in lateral flow immunoassays, Nature Communications volume 16, Article number: 3216 (2025) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57385-6