Kilobaser

Bernhard Tittelbach likes to take things apart. Alexander Murer and Martin Jost liked that idea so much they decided to take apart the entire DNA synthesis industry and rebuild it on a benchtop. These three Austrian founders built Kilobaser—the world's first personal DNA synthesizer—and it's exactly what it sounds like: the Nespresso machine for DNA. Until now, life scientists had to outsource oligo synthesis, wait weeks for delivery, and pay through the nose for custom sequences. Kilobaser puts DNA printing on your counter and cuts wait times from weeks to hours.

Here's why this matters: DNA synthesis is the backbone of molecular biology, gene editing, diagnostics, and synthetic biology—but it's been stuck in the slow lane for decades. Academic labs and biotech companies alike were stuck ordering from external vendors, dealing with shipping delays, limited customization, and markups that made research expensive. Kilobaser's One-XT lets researchers synthesize custom oligos, probes, and modified RNA in-house with the push of a button. No gas cylinders needed—there's a compact nitrogen generator built in. They're already in labs across Austria, Brazil, and beyond, with researchers at MatMaCorp, Biogenes Technologies, Evolutta Agro Biotech, and IST Austria all raving about it. One lab leader at UnternehmerTUM said they printed DNA and tested it against samples within two hours. Two hours.

The boring industries are where the real money lives—but so do the hard problems. DNA synthesis is a $5 billion market growing double digits every year, and it's been begging for innovation. Kilobaser said "we're going to print genes in a box" and Y Combinator said "yes, please." This is the kind of tool that makes CRISPR, PCR, and diagnostics actually accessible to more labs. The future of biology isn't just in sequencing anymore—it's in printing it too.

Based in Austria, they're growing their customer base globally and looking for labs ready to stop waiting and start synthesizing.