# Berkeley Lights

Berkeley Lights is a Digital Cell Biology / Optofluidics based in Emeryville, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Digital Cell Biology / Optofluidics
- **Headquarters:** Emeryville, United States
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** Emeryville, CA, United States
- **Founded:** 2011
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** berkeleylights.com
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/berkeley-lights

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

Berkeley Lights is a biotech firm based in Emeryville, United States, founded in 2011. It develops technology for cell-by-cell selection and manipulation to support personalized therapy development. The company has secured $245.6 million in total funding.

## Sectors

- AI/ML
- Digital Health
- Enterprise Software
- Industrial Tech

## People

- Eric Hobbs — Co-founder and CEO
- Igor Khandros — Co-founder and Chairman

## Questions

### Who runs investment decisions at Berkeley Lights?

Berkeley Lights did not operate as an investment firm — it was a commercial life-sciences tools company. Product and capital-allocation decisions were led by CEO Eric Hobbs and the executive team, overseen by a board of directors that included representation from venture investors prior to the 2020 IPO.

### How does Berkeley Lights source its deal flow or customer pipeline?

Commercial adoption was driven by direct sales and collaborations with large biopharma, academic cell-biology labs, and contract research organizations. Named users included Pfizer, Genentech, Gilead, and BioMarin. The firm also co-published application data with partners to demonstrate platform utility for antibody discovery and cell-line development workflows.

### What investment stages or asset classes does Berkeley Lights target?

Berkeley Lights itself was not an institutional allocator and did not deploy capital into external stages or asset classes. Its business was selling genetic-analysis and cell-manipulation instruments — plus associated consumables and software — into the pharmaceutical and academic R&D markets.

### Which sectors benefit directly from Berkeley Lights' technology?

The primary beneficiaries are therapeutic antibody discovery, cell-line development for biomanufacturing, and functional cell-based assays used in immunology and oncology research. Adjacent applications include T-cell phenotyping and rare-cell isolation for cell therapy workflows.

### What is Berkeley Lights' known posture on co-investments or partnerships?

Because Berkeley Lights functioned as a product company rather than a fund, its partnership model centered on technology access agreements and collaborative application development with biopharma customers. It did not participate in co-investment vehicles, deal-by-deal SPVs, or fund commitments.

## Related profiles

- [Berkeley Hills Capital](https://altss.com/profile/berkeley-hills-capital)
- [Berman, Gil](https://altss.com/profile/berman-gil)

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Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z

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