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Unchained Labs
Tim Harkness founded Unchained Labs after three exits; the Carlyle-owned firm builds benchtop instruments for biologics and gene therapy R&D.
Unchained Labs
Unchained Labs helps biologics & gene therapy researchers break free from tools that don't cut it. Crank up your research with our problem-solving products.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Pleasanton
Corporate office
4747 Willow Rd, Pleasanton, CA 94588, United States
Additional offices
Brighton, MA · Gent, Belgium · Royston, UK · Shanghai, China · Tokyo, Japan
Principals
Tim Harkness
Founder and CEO
Taegen Clary
CCO
Will Lachnit
SVP Corporate Dev
Krista Witte
SVP Product Dev
Dustin Giberson
SVP Operations
Brandon Frederick
VP Finance
Krystin Schmidt
VP Marketing
Christie lau
Sr. Director HR
Dr. Martin Madaus
Operating Executive, The Carlyle Group
Robert Schmidt
Managing Director, The Carlyle Group
Samuel Tang
Senior Associate, The Carlyle Group
Laura J. Hamill
Biotech Executive
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Unchained Labs?
Unchained Labs is not an investment firm—it is a Carlyle Group portfolio company that manufactures life-science instrumentation. Strategic and capital-allocation decisions are made by the board, which includes Founder and CEO Tim Harkness, Carlyle Operating Executive Dr. Martin Madaus, and Carlyle Managing Director Robert Schmidt. Carlyle's U.S. Buyout team, based in New York, oversees the investment from the sponsor side.
Is Unchained Labs structured as a family office?
No. Unchained Labs is a corporate entity backed by The Carlyle Group, a publicly traded private equity firm. It does not manage or deploy capital for a single family. The firm's founding story—Tim Harkness's serial entrepreneurship in life-science tools—can cause occasional misclassification, but its capital structure is institutional PE.
How does Unchained Labs source its proprietary deal flow?
The firm does not source deal flow in the allocator sense. Its growth comes from internal product development, not acquisitions of portfolio companies. The R&D pipeline is built through identifying unsolved benchtop problems in biologics and gene therapy workflows, then engineering plate-based or automated instruments to replace manual protocols.
Does Unchained Labs participate in fund commitments or direct deals?
No. Unchained Labs is an operating company, not an institutional allocator or LP. It does not make fund commitments, direct equity investments, or co-investments. Its capital deployment is entirely directed toward product development, manufacturing, and geographic expansion of its commercial organization.
What is Unchained Labs's relationship to Carlyle?
The Carlyle Group acquired a controlling stake in Unchained Labs as part of its U.S. Buyout healthcare portfolio. Carlyle deal professionals Robert Schmidt and Samuel Tang, along with Operating Executive Dr. Martin Madaus, serve on the board. The structure suggests a long-duration hold with operational emphasis, not a pre-IPO flip.
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