The Hive provides smart lab automation solutions for life‑sciences workflows, offering an integrated sample‑handling system that can control robots, instruments, and storage devices. Its platform supports high‑throughput tasks such as rapid centrifugation up to 5000 × g and precise automated pipetting from 100 nL, enabling fast processing of 96‑well plates in 30 seconds and 384‑well plates in two minutes.
Funding
$895.2K raised to dateRaised to date based on public sources. This may differ from the amount the company actually raised and is based only on what is publicly available on the internet.
Founders
Product
Problem
Laboratory workflows in life‑science research often rely on manual sample handling, disparate instruments, and low‑throughput centrifugation, leading to bottlenecks, operator error, and limited scalability. Small footprints and lack of integration further restrict labs with space constraints from automating high‑density plate processing.
Solution
The Hive platform delivers a modular, robot‑accessible sample‑handling system that unifies liquid handling, centrifugation, and plate storage into a single, configurable solution. Its high‑performance HiG centrifuge accelerates up to 5,000 × g, providing faster pelletizing and cleaner supernatants than conventional units. Integrated low‑volume pipetting (100 nL – µL range) with 8‑ or 16‑channel heads enables rapid 96‑well processing in 30 seconds and 384‑well processing in two minutes. The system’s interchangeable components—microplate carousel, HD stack storage, rotators, movers, exchangers, de‑lidder, and robot arms—allow front‑ or back‑access integration with existing lab equipment. Real‑time topographic mapping detects errors such as depth anomalies or missing vials, ensuring reliable operation with minimal supervision.
Target Audience
Primary customers are pharmaceutical, biotech, and academic laboratories that conduct high‑throughput screening, genomics, proteomics, and drug‑discovery workflows requiring automated sample preparation and plate processing.
Features
- Modular architecture supporting unlimited integration of robots, instruments, and storage devices
- HiG centrifuge capable of 5,000 × g acceleration for high‑speed pelletizing and filtration
- Precision automated pipetting from 100 nL with 8‑ or 16‑channel heads and individual channel volume control
- High‑throughput plate handling: 96‑well plates in 30 s, 384‑well plates in 2 min
- Comprehensive system components (carousel, HD stack, rotator, mover, exchanger, de‑lidder, robot arms, mobile storage kart)
- Topographic error‑mapping for detection of depth anomalies, missing vials, and other handling issues
- Imbalance‑tolerant operation to maintain performance despite sample weight variations