Life science tools · DNA synthesis equipment
Kilobaser
A Graz, Austria company that built a benchtop machine for printing short DNA and RNA strands in a lab, instead of ordering them from a central supplier. Its original company went insolvent in 2023 after a US expansion did not pay off, and the product now ships under a new legal owner financed by a Malaysian distributor.
A biohacker space, then a machine
Alexander Murer was studying molecular biology in Graz when the coursework frustrated him. “It was very theoretical and I was more into doing practical stuff,” he told DNA Weekly in 2020. He started building lab equipment in his free time, then, with friends, founded Open Biolab Graz, a noncommercial community lab built on open source principles. Running that lab meant thinking about how to make it self sustaining, and DNA kept coming up as the obvious focus, since it is the building block researchers need most often.
Murer, Martin Jost and Bernhard Tittelbach set out to build a DNA synthesizer of their own. “When we delved deeper into microfluidics, it became much more complicated,” Murer said. They founded the company in 2014, first under the name Briefcase Biotec, and joined an accelerator program to fund the work. By April 2018 they had three working Serie 0 prototypes and showed the machine publicly for the first time at the Analytica lab technology trade fair.
The wait it targets
A DNA primer is a short synthetic DNA strand, the starting point for PCR and most other molecular biology work. Making primers requires specialized synthesizers that are expensive to buy and run, so most labs order primers from a small number of large central suppliers instead of making their own. Der Brutkasten reported in 2018 that this routinely cost labs two to six days of waiting per order, and that only a few hundred synthesis machines were sold worldwide each year, mostly not to the labs doing the ordering.
Kilobaser's answer was a desktop machine built around a microfluidic chip and a disposable reagent cartridge, priced and sized for an individual lab bench rather than a production floor. The company describes its chip as combining and miniaturizing the functions of a conventional automated solid phase synthesizer, cutting reagent use by roughly 50 times and producing a usable DNA oligo, using phosphoramidite chemistry, in about an hour. Murer called it “the Espresso machine of DNA synthesizers.”
Building the company
The three founders divided the work along conventional lines: Murer as chief executive, Jost as chief operating officer, Tittelbach as chief technology officer. All three are named as inventors on the company's US patent for the oligonucleotide synthesizing device, filed in 2017 and granted in 2023. By 2018, about EUR 1.6 million had gone into the machine's development, roughly EUR 500,000 of it from the US investor SOSV and the rest from FFG, Austria's public research funding agency. The company was preparing a EUR 3 million Series A at the time.
The product reached the market in mid 2020. By March 2021, when Kilobaser joined Y Combinator's Winter 2021 batch, the company said it had generated about US$500,000 in cumulative revenue and was seeking a US$2 million seed round toward a Series A. Later that year it opened a US office in San Francisco with support from Focus Academy, and it signed distributors in multiple countries, including the Czech Republic and, later, Malaysia.
Insolvency, then a buyer
The US push did not hold. Kilobaser set up a US parent, Kilobaser Corporation, which held the share capital of the Austrian operating company. On July 17, 2023, Kilobaser GmbH filed for insolvency at the Graz civil court. Liabilities were about EUR 5.2 million against assets of about EUR 110,000, affecting 19 employees and roughly 30 creditors, with no continuation of the company planned. EUR 3.5 million of the liabilities were a loan from Kilobaser Corporation itself. The stated causes were pandemic era trade show cancellations, a slower than planned sales ramp, and investors withdrawing committed funding after the market turned in 2022.
Soon after, Murer said, Biogenes Technologies, a Malaysian distributor and customer whose diagnostics work depended on Kilobaser's products, offered to finance a rescue. Murer and his two co-founders formed a new company, later identified as MABEAL GmbH, which bought the Kilobaser assets out of the bankruptcy estate. Eighteen of the twenty former employees stayed on. MABEAL GmbH was registered on July 28, 2023 with EUR 35,100 in share capital, and it now lists itself as the operator of kilobaser.com. Biogenes Technologies, Murer said, placed about US$500,000 in development project orders, which he distinguished from a conventional equity investment. MABEAL GmbH itself later went through a restructuring proceeding without self administration, publicly announced on October 20, 2024; the restructuring plan was legally confirmed and the proceeding lifted, with a payment deadline running to September 24, 2026, according to the Austrian business register.
What is proven, and what is still claimed
| Evidence | What the record shows | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| Kilobaser GmbH insolvency | Filed Jul 17, 2023 in Graz. Liabilities about EUR 5.2 million, assets about EUR 110,000, 19 employees and about 30 creditors affected, no continuation planned. EUR 3.5 million of the liabilities was a loan from the US parent, Kilobaser Corporation. | Public record |
| MABEAL GmbH registration and restructuring | Registered Jul 28, 2023, FN 609207v, EUR 35,100 share capital, Graz. Underwent a restructuring proceeding without self administration announced Oct 20, 2024; plan confirmed and proceeding lifted, payment deadline to Sep 24, 2026. Lists itself as responsible for kilobaser.com. | Public record |
| SEC EDGAR search | No Form D or other filing found under “Kilobaser,” “Kilobaser Corporation,” or “Briefcase Biotec” as of Sep 25, 2026, despite the company having a US parent entity. | Not found |
| FFG project record | A “Kilobaser” Basisprogramm project ran Nov 1, 2019 to Dec 31, 2021, status completed. The public listing does not disclose the award amount. | Public record |
| US patent US20190374946A1 | “Device for synthesizing oligonucleotides,” filed 2017, granted. Inventors listed are Alexander Murer, Martin Jost and Bernhard Tittelbach. | Public record |
| Early funding, as reported | Der Brutkasten reported about EUR 1.6 million invested by April 2018, about EUR 500,000 from SOSV and the rest from FFG, with a EUR 3 million Series A being prepared at the time. | Independent |
| Peer reviewed literature | No independent, peer reviewed paper describing results generated with a Kilobaser instrument was found in PubMed or general web searches as of Sep 25, 2026. | Not found |
| Aggregator funding totals | Tracxn lists total funding of $625,000 over two rounds. PitchBook lists total funding of $1.99 million and tags the company “Out of Business.” The two figures do not match each other, and PitchBook's status does not match the company's continued, Kilobaser branded operations under MABEAL GmbH. | Differs between sources |
Read plainly: the synthesizer, its patent, and the 2023 insolvency are all on the public record. Not on the record: any US securities filing for the American parent, any independent scientific validation of the instrument's output, or one agreed figure for total funding across the company's two corporate lives.
What to watch
- Whether MABEAL GmbH completes the payment schedule under its restructuring plan, due by September 24, 2026.
- Whether Biogenes Technologies is later described as an investor rather than a customer placing orders.
- Named customers or audited revenue, beyond the third party estimate of about $3.1 million for 2024.
In their words
“I was studying molecular biology in Graz, Austria and I was a bit annoyed by studying because it was very theoretical and I was more into doing practical stuff.”
Alexander Murer, CEO and co-founder, DNA Weekly interview, 2020 · Interview
“We call it the Espresso machine of DNA synthesizers because it's a very simple and convenient personal DNA synthesizer.”
Alexander Murer, DNA Weekly interview, 2020 · Interview
“Das möchten wir mit dem Kilobaser ändern.”
Alex Murer, Briefcase Biotec founder, Der Brutkasten, Apr 19, 2018 · Independent
“We're truly democratizing DNA & RNA synthesis with our very affordable Kilobaser synthesis platform.”
Alexander Murer, CEO, Focus Academy partnership release, Dec 15, 2021 · Company release
“We went to market with our first product in mid 2020 and have seen our revenue grow to a total of US$ 500k so far.”
Kilobaser company blog, Mar 17, 2021 · Company
“Kurz nachdem ich Insolvenz und Konkurs beantragen musste, hat mich überraschend ein malaysischer Kunde und Partner, Biogenes Technologies, kontaktiert und gemeint, sie würden eine Rettung der Kilobaser-Produkte finanzieren können.”
Alexander Murer, co-founder, Der Brutkasten, Jan 24, 2024 · Independent
“Glücklicherweise ist Biogenes Technologies kein klassischer Investor. Sie haben gleich Entwicklungsprojekte in der Höhe von 500.000 US-Dollar geordert.”
Alexander Murer, Der Brutkasten, Jan 24, 2024 · Independent
Related companies
Sources
- Public recordMABEAL GmbH, FN 609207v, register entry and insolvency database record
- Public recordFFG Projektdatenbank, project 3729535, Kilobaser
- Public recordUS20190374946A1, Device for synthesizing oligonucleotides
- IndependentGrazer Start-up Kilobaser ist insolvent
- IndependentKilobaser: 5-Millionen-Pleite für Grazer BioTech nach gescheiterter US-Expansion
- IndependentGrazer Medizin-Start-up Kilobaser GmbH ist insolvent
- IndependentNach Konkurs: Malaysischer Kunde finanziert Neugründung von Grazer Startup Kilobaser
- IndependentKilobaser: Grazer Startup geht mit “DNA-Nespresso-Maschine” an den Markt
- InterviewMeet Kilobaser, The Espresso Machine Of DNA Synthesis
- PartnerFocus Academy Partners With Kilobaser to Open U.S. Office
- CompanyKilobaser joins Y-Combinator
- CompanyOur Company, Who we are
- CompanyOur Technology
- CompanyKilobaser One-XT and Kilobaser One product pages
- CompanyWhat's New at Kilobaser (N2Go, DNAMIC/SCDNA26)
- CompanyKilobaser impressum
- IndependentKilobaser company page
- IndependentKilobaser 2026 Company Profile, Valuation, Funding & Investors
- IndependentKiloBaser, 2026 Company Profile, Team, Funding & Competitors
- IndependentKilobaser Revenue 2024, Est. ARR
Profile researched and written by Healthcare Discovery. Last updated September 29, 2026.
