Company: Lab Thread
Co-Founders: Dr Ryan Cawood (CEO) and Deyan Sultov (CTO)
Website: https://labthread.com
About Lab Thread
Lab Thread is a unified software platform designed to digitalise life science laboratories by replacing fragmented legacy tools with a continuous digital thread. It connects the whole lab workflow, from first design to final report, with full physical sample tracking, improving reproducibility, safeguarding continuity and helping researchers advance the science that reaches patients.
The business was founded to solve a major paradox: teams developing next generation therapies still manage critical research data using spreadsheet files and paper notebooks. When researchers leave, years of institutional knowledge leave with them.
Co-founders Deyan Sultov, with 30+ years of experience building complex software, and Dr Ryan Cawood, a scientist who previously built and led a gene therapy venture acquired for $135 mln, experienced this bottleneck firsthand. After investing £500,000 of personal capital to develop the core technology, Lab Thread was incorporated in the UK with its engineering hub based in Bulgaria. In July 2025, the company secured £750,000 in funding from Mercia Ventures, leading to its commercial launch in April 2026.
The main challenge Lab Thread has overcome is the deep scepticism within the conservative laboratory sector. Researchers are cautious about adopting new software due to operational disruption and friction. Lab Thread addressed this by designing the platform around the cognitive model of scientists, delivering full integration in just 2-4 weeks with no upfront fees, compared to the months-long implementations and significant capital requirements of legacy providers.
The platform integrates five previously disconnected categories: a molecular biology suite for in silico DNA design, an electronic lab notebook, inventory/LIMS, project management, and automated calculators that eliminate manual data transfer errors. Built on Azure, it automatically scales under heavy genomic sequencing loads. Designed as a modular, domain-driven platform, Lab Thread models each workflow step as a connected module, carrying an unbroken digital thread from design to sample.
Finally, a comprehensive audit trail captures every significant action to comply with 21 CFR Part 11 and ISO 27001 standards. The product roadmap delivers AI features in phases: an AI context-aware side panel, semantic search across all historical data and AI Protocol Generator in H2 2026, followed by a full Antibody Discovery module and GxP compliance framework in 2027.
Data from the beta programme demonstrates that Lab Thread saves researchers an average of 12 hours per week, about 30% of their total working hours, previously lost to administrative burden. Automated calculators reduce data transfer errors to near zero, against an industry standard of approximately three percent, while in silico simulations minimise chemical waste and optimise laboratory hardware power consumption.
One month after the commercial launch, the platform is trusted by laboratories at the University of Oxford, Mayo Clinic and UMass Chan Medical School, with 27 companies in active trial and 151 requested licences. Recognised as Startup of the Year 2026 and named a Product to Watch by Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News, Lab Thread is now expanding commercial operations worldwide, giving laboratories the digital infrastructure, data security and regulatory readiness previously reserved for global pharmaceutical companies.
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