Mostafa ElSayed
Co-founder and CEO, Automata

Meet the founder

As an architect working at the award-winning practice, Zaha Hadid, Automata co-founder and CEO Mostafa ElSayed’s initial interest in robotics focussed on bespoke manufacturing jobs. He quickly recognised, however, the impact his expertise stood to have in biolab environments – and has spearheaded Automata’s focus on putting its technology to use in the life sciences market. Automata’s low-cost collaborative robot has been manufactured at scale, and promises to become a central component of every lab, integrating with pre-existing hardware and diagnostic tools to accelerate automation across life sciences.

“Octopus has worked to fundamentally understand our product & customers, to the extent that they are now able to give insights and introductions that have a tangible impact on our business.”

Mostafa ElSayed

Why we invested

The work being done in laboratories is painstaking. Slow, delicate and labour-intensive manual processes dominate – but a digital transformation is underway. When Octopus Ventures first met Automata back in 2017, we knew that Mostafa and his team were a business to watch. So when the opportunity to back them came up, we knew we had to get onboard with their mission – to drive automation in one of the spaces that needs it most.

Initial investment stage

Series B

First invested

2022