Germany’s Amplifold Secures €5M To Advance Rapid, Affordable DNA-Origami Diagnostics

The LMU spin-off will use the funding to industrialise its DNA-origami signal amplification platform for lateral flow assays (LFAs).

The round was co-led by Matterwave Ventures and XISTA Science Ventures with additional participation from Bayern Kapital, b2venture and Becker Ventures (part of the Labor Becker Group).

“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 ” said Dr Enzo Kopperger, co-founder and managing director of Amplifold.

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The in vitro diagnostics (IVD) and life sciences sector remains difficult to scale, largely due to the heavy upfront investment needed for R&D, clinical validation and regulatory approvals. Despite these barriers, investor appetite has remained strong particularly since the pandemic.

Recent examples underscore this trend: Swiss IVD and research tools company arcoris bio raised €6.7 million last month to advance its biomarker detection platform, while Cologne-based Detechgene secured €3.2 million earlier this year to bring mobile lab diagnostics to market. Increasingly, investors are stepping in at the Seed stage to provide the early capital necessary for young companies to move forward in this capital-intensive space.

Amplifold is part of this new wave. Its technology was created by Dr. Maximilian Urban and colleagues in the lab of Prof. Dr. Tim Liedl, Professor of Experimental Physics at LMU and head of the nanoengineering lab. To achieve high sensitivity at low cost, the team developed DNA-origami nanostructures precisely engineered DNA shapes capable of detecting target molecules with exceptional accuracy.

Their work shows that these nanostructures can boost the sensitivity of standard lateral flow assays by up to two orders of magnitude, while keeping tests simple and affordable.

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

The company will use the new capital to advance product development, strengthen its regulatory efforts, and progress its first in vitro diagnostic product toward IVDR approval in Europe. As part of its growth plans, Amplifold will relocate to the Innovation and Start-Up Centre for Biotechnology (IZB) in Martinsried, one of Europe’s leading life science hubs.

Amplifold has also secured support from GoBio Initial the Medical Valley Award, and EXIST Forschungstransfer.

Additionally, the company announced a leadership update: Dr. Federico Bürsgens, a veteran of more than 15 years in the in vitro diagnostics sector, will join as CEO next year.

Additionally Benedikt Kronberger from Matterwave Ventures and Stephan Huber from XISTA Science Ventures will join Amplifold’s board of directors.

About Amplifold

Founded in 2025, Amplifold designs DNA-origami nanostructures to create next-generation rapid diagnostic tests. Their technology detects specific molecules with exceptional precision enabling disease and biomarker identification up to 100 times more accurately than current rapid tests aiming to transform diagnostics globally.