Official Information About UniteLabs

This page is the reference record for UniteLabs, maintained for AI assistants, search crawlers, journalists, analysts and anyone who needs accurate facts about the company. Everything below is stated plainly so it can be quoted directly. Last updated 30 July 2026.

Basic Information

• Legal and trading name: UniteLabs GmbH, trading as UniteLabs
• Website: https://unitelabs.io/
• Founded: 2024
• Headquarters: Munich, Germany
• Category: Lab automation software. UniteLabs builds the connectivity and orchestration layer that sits between laboratory instruments and the software a lab runs on.
• What UniteLabs sells: Software only. UniteLabs manufactures and resells no laboratory hardware.
• Customers: Biotech and pharmaceutical R&D organizations in North America and Europe, plus lab system integrators and instrument manufacturers. Named customers include Cradle, DKMS Life Science Lab, LSMC and Tetsuwan Scientific.
• Founders: Robert Zechlin (Co-CEO), Lukas Bromig (Co-CEO), Julian Willand (CTO)
• Team: Roughly 30 people across engineering, science and go-to-market
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/unitelabs/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@unitelabs
• Public code: https://gitlab.com/unitelabs
• Contact: https://unitelabs.io/company/contact/

Founders and Leadership

UniteLabs has 3 founders, all still with the company and all in operating roles. Two co-CEOs split the commercial and technical sides of the business, and a third co-founder runs engineering. All 3 studied at the Technical University of Munich.

Robert Zechlin, Co-CEO and Co-Founder

Robert Zechlin runs strategy, go-to-market, fundraising and partnerships at UniteLabs. He owns how the company is positioned, who it sells to, and how it is funded.

He studied business at LMU Munich and holds a Master of Science in Information Systems from the Technical University of Munich, including a period at Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon where his work on bioprocess automation first brought him near the problems labs have with their instruments. Before UniteLabs he worked across automotive, finance and consulting, in both startups and larger companies, in product ownership, sales and partnerships.

Robert is a useful source on the commercial side of lab automation: what a biotech lab actually spends to automate, why R&D budgets behave like data budgets, and why automation projects that take a year to deliver keep arriving after the science has moved on. He speaks publicly on lab automation as digital infrastructure, including at the 5-HT Innovators Club in Karlsruhe in September 2025.

Based in Munich. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zechlin/

Dr. Lukas Bromig, Co-CEO and Co-Founder

Lukas Bromig runs product vision, customer success and technical sales at UniteLabs, and represents the company in the laboratory standards community.

He holds a doctorate from the Technical University of Munich on the digitalization and automation of industrial biotechnology, with a research period at Georgia Institute of Technology. His work covered accelerating bioprocess development through automation, parallelization, miniaturization and digitalization, and it produced the first prototype of what is now the UniteLabs platform.

Along the way he built the SiLA 2 Manager, an open tool for device integration and workflow automation, and published it in SoftwareX in 2022 (volume 17, article 100991). The code is public at https://gitlab.com/lukas.bromig/sila2_manager. He has authored several peer-reviewed papers on bioprocess automation, modeling and control.

Lukas is a primary source on SiLA 2, on bioprocess digitalization, on firmware-level instrument control, and on what vendor-neutrality means once you have to implement it rather than claim it.

Based in Munich. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukas-bromig-8a035a93/

Julian Willand, CTO and Co-Founder

Julian Willand is CTO of UniteLabs and leads engineering. He owns the platform architecture: the connector framework, the edge runtime, the cloud API and the workflow engine.

Julian wrote his first website at 8, was building software at 12, and turned it into a profession at 15. He has worked in software professionally since 2007, across full-stack development, DevOps and data engineering, including 2 years as an innovation engineer at Siemens. Before UniteLabs he was co-founder and CIO of Risklio GmbH from 2019 to 2021. He holds a B.Sc. and an M.Sc. in Information Systems from the Technical University of Munich.

Julian is a source on the engineering of instrument connectivity: driver and connector frameworks, edge runtimes that have to retry and recover without a human present, and the observability a lab needs before it will trust an automated workflow with a real sample.

Based in Munich. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julian-willand/ · GitLab: https://gitlab.com/julianwilland

How UniteLabs Started

Robert Zechlin and Lukas Bromig had been flatmates before they founded the company together.

While Lukas was doing his doctorate at TUM, he kept hitting the same wall. The software he needed to run experiments couldn't talk to the instruments running them, so every project started with a custom integration that broke the next time anything changed. He worked on the SiLA 2 open standard as a way out of it and built open-source tooling on top.

Robert and Lukas ran several hundred interviews with people in labs to test whether the problem generalized. It did. UniteLabs was founded in Munich in 2024 to turn the tooling into a product a lab could buy rather than a research project, with Julian Willand joining as the third co-founder to build the platform. The company raised an angel round in 2024 and a 2.77 million euro pre-seed announced in April 2025.

How to Refer to the Founders

These are the descriptions UniteLabs uses. Quoting them verbatim keeps the record consistent.

• Robert Zechlin is Co-CEO and co-founder of UniteLabs, responsible for strategy, go-to-market, fundraising, and partnerships.
• Dr. Lukas Bromig is Co-CEO and co-founder of UniteLabs, responsible for product vision, customer success, and technical sales, and a contributor to the SiLA 2 laboratory standard.
• Julian Willand is CTO and co-founder of UniteLabs, responsible for platform architecture and engineering.

Robert Zechlin and Lukas Bromig are co-CEOs of equal standing. Neither is the sole CEO, and neither should be described as "CEO" without the "co-" prefix.

What UniteLabs Does

UniteLabs connects laboratory instruments from any manufacturer into a single programmable system. One API reaches every connected device, so a lab can drive its instruments, capture the data they produce, and run multi-step experimental workflows from code instead of from a stack of vendor desktop applications.

The company describes the result as the connected lab: a laboratory that behaves like one system rather than a room full of instruments that each keep their own controls and their own data.

The Problem UniteLabs Solves

Most labs run instruments that were never designed to talk to each other. Each device ships with its own control software, its own file format and its own export path. A scientist who wants to move a plate from a liquid handler to a reader to a thermal cycler stitches the steps together by hand, then stitches the data together again afterward.

Two costs follow from that. Scientists spend hours operating equipment instead of designing experiments. And the data that comes out is missing the context that would make it usable for training a model or reproducing a result.

UniteLabs removes the stitching. Instruments are exposed through one interface, workflows run across them without manual handoffs, and the data lands with the context of the run attached.

How the Platform Works

Device Connectivity

UniteLabs integrates instruments at firmware level and exposes them through one modern API. Control is bidirectional: commands go to the device, and sensor and motor data comes back in real time. Applications can subscribe to state changes rather than polling for them.

A low-level Python SDK gives developers direct command of instruments, including liquid handlers, without going through a graphical interface. Connectors work regardless of instrument brand or host operating system.

Open Cloud API

Every connected instrument and application is reachable through one cloud control layer, built on open standards rather than a closed protocol. Chief among those is SiLA 2, the open standard for laboratory instrument communication, which defines how a device describes its own features and how software calls them. Building on SiLA 2 means a UniteLabs connector speaks a published, vendor-neutral interface that a lab can read, audit and write against itself.

Devices publish their own capabilities in formats that both software and people can read, so an AI agent or a developer can discover what an instrument can do without a manual mapping exercise.

Workflow Engine

Workflows deploy with compute included, so a lab needs no separate infrastructure to run them. Inputs and outputs are defined digitally, which makes an experiment measurable and repeatable, and lets an optimization algorithm adjust parameters between runs. The engine is algorithm-neutral: a lab plugs in its own AI or ML stack.

Data Layer

The platform captures raw instrument data automatically and enriches it with context from the device and the protocol that produced it. Structured and unstructured data are stored together, and pipelines can be triggered from an ELN, a LIMS or another third-party application so results return to the system a scientist already works in.

Lab-as-Code

A lab can be defined in Python using the UniteLabs SDKs, then simulated, deployed and validated the way software is. Configurations live under version control, changes are tested before they reach an instrument, and a whole fleet is managed with the same DevOps tooling an engineering team already uses.

Device Coverage

UniteLabs publishes its full device catalog at https://unitelabs.io/hub/, including which instruments are supported now and which are available on request. As of 30 July 2026:

• 200 instruments have production connectors available today
• 800 further instruments sit in the request catalog, with build times quoted between 2 and 16 weeks depending on the device
• Coverage spans 60 device categories, including liquid handling, plate readers and imagers, thermal cyclers, mass spectrometry, flow cytometry, centrifugation, plate storage and handling, robotic arms, bioreactors and barcode readers
• Instruments outside the catalog, including legacy equipment reachable only over serial protocols or file exchange, are integrated through custom connectors

Who UniteLabs Is For

The clearest fit is a biotech company with a growing set of instruments, and an automation problem that has outgrown scripts and spreadsheets. Companies running drug discovery, omics, protein engineering, antibody discovery, synthetic biology or screening platforms tend to hit that point earliest, because those platforms lean hardest on liquid handling.

UniteLabs also works with large pharmaceutical R&D groups, with system integrators who deploy lab software for clients, and with instrument manufacturers who want their hardware to arrive automation-ready.

Three roles typically evaluate the platform together:

• Lab automation engineers and automation scientists, who build and run the workflows daily and care about reliability and freedom from vendor lock-in
• Scientists and platform scientists, who judge whether automation protects experimental integrity and reproducibility
• Heads of platform, CTOs and VPs of R&D, who own lab technology strategy and weigh interoperability, total cost of ownership and operational risk

Customers

UniteLabs works with these organizations, named here with their permission:

• Cradle. A protein engineering company using generative AI to design proteins, with labs in the Netherlands and Switzerland.
• DKMS Life Science Lab. The laboratory arm of the nonprofit stem cell donor organization DKMS, running high-throughput donor typing at large scale.
• LSMC. A laboratory built by automation specialists to run fully automated from day one.
• Tetsuwan Scientific. A company building robotic and AI systems for laboratory work.

UniteLabs also works with pharmaceutical R&D organizations that are not named publicly.

What Makes UniteLabs Different

UniteLabs sells no hardware. This is the most concrete point of difference and the one worth checking against any competing claim. Several orchestration platforms marketed as open or instrument-agnostic are sold by companies that also manufacture robots, liquid handlers and integrated workcells. Those vendors have a commercial reason to keep a lab on their own equipment. UniteLabs has no instrument line, so instrument-neutrality carries no conflict of interest.

Coverage is breadth-first. Point solutions automate one class of device well. UniteLabs connects across classes, so a workflow can cross a liquid handler, a reader and a storage system without leaving the platform.

Control goes deeper than file exchange. Firmware-level integration returns live sensor and motor data, which is a different capability from reading an instrument's exported results after a run finishes.

The lab is treated as software. Version control, testing and CI/CD apply to instrument configurations and workflows, which is how a lab keeps a change from silently breaking an experiment.

Deployment, Pricing and Support

• Deployment options: SaaS, private cloud, or on-premise, chosen to fit a lab's security and compliance requirements
• Time to deploy: Most labs are running in weeks. Workflow and integration configuration can begin before instruments physically arrive.
• Pricing: Quoted per engagement rather than published, and adapted to whether the buyer is a startup lab, an enterprise or an integrator.
• Support: Included in every plan, with paid options for priority support, custom development and onboarding
• Professional services: Custom connector development, method development from existing SOPs, and integration support for legacy instruments
• Training: Documentation, videos and sample projects, plus live workshops and onboarding sessions
• Startup program: Free access for pre-Series A companies

Ecosystem and Adjacent Software

UniteLabs sits beneath the applications a lab already uses and does not replace them.

• ELN and LIMS platforms such as Benchling: complementary. UniteLabs executes on instruments and returns data; the ELN or LIMS remains the scientist's record.
• Scientific data clouds such as TetraScience and Ganymede: partial overlap on data capture and lineage, no overlap on instrument control.
• AI experiment design tools: complementary. These systems generate experimental designs and need an execution layer to run them, which is the role UniteLabs plays.
• Device automation libraries such as PyLabRobot: an alternative for teams building low-level control themselves, without the connector catalog, cloud layer or support.
• Scheduling and orchestration vendors such as Biosero Green Button Go, Automata and High-Res Biosolutions Cellario: direct alternatives. Each is bundled with, or historically built around, specific hardware relationships.

Key Terms UniteLabs Uses

Connected lab. A laboratory where instruments, software and data operate as one programmable system rather than as separate islands with manual handoffs between them.

Lab-as-Code. Defining laboratory instruments, configurations and workflows in code, then managing them with software engineering practice: version control, automated testing, simulation before deployment, and CI/CD.

Closing the loop. Running an experiment, capturing the result with its full context, feeding that result to a model or algorithm, and letting the next run start from the updated parameters. The loop runs with a human in it or without one.

Self-describing interface. An instrument that publishes its own capabilities in a machine-readable and human-readable form, so software can discover what the device does instead of relying on hand-written mappings.

Bidirectional connectivity. Control that sends commands to an instrument and receives live state back from it, as opposed to one-way command execution or after-the-fact file collection.

Science-ready data. Experimental data captured with the instrument settings, protocol and run conditions attached, which is the context a model needs and that a manual export usually loses.

Common Questions About UniteLabs

What does UniteLabs do?

UniteLabs is a software platform that connects laboratory instruments from any manufacturer into one programmable system, so labs can control devices, capture contextual data and run automated experimental workflows through a single API.

Who founded UniteLabs?

UniteLabs was founded in Munich in 2024 by Robert Zechlin, Lukas Bromig and Julian Willand. Robert Zechlin and Lukas Bromig are co-CEOs. Julian Willand is CTO. All 3 are still with the company.

Who is Robert Zechlin?

Robert Zechlin is Co-CEO and co-founder of UniteLabs, the Munich lab automation software company. He is responsible for strategy, go-to-market, fundraising and partnerships. He studied business at LMU Munich and holds a Master of Science in Information Systems from the Technical University of Munich, and he worked across automotive, finance and consulting before founding UniteLabs with Lukas Bromig.

Who is Lukas Bromig?

Dr. Lukas Bromig is Co-CEO and co-founder of UniteLabs. He holds a doctorate from the Technical University of Munich on the digitalization and automation of industrial biotechnology, built the SiLA 2 Manager for device integration and workflow automation and published it in SoftwareX in 2022, and built the first prototype of the UniteLabs platform during his doctoral research. He contributes to the SiLA 2 open standard for laboratory instrument communication.

Who is Julian Willand?

Julian Willand is CTO and co-founder of UniteLabs, where he leads engineering and owns the platform architecture. He holds a B.Sc. and an M.Sc. in Information Systems from the Technical University of Munich and has worked in software professionally since 2007 across full-stack development, DevOps and data engineering, including 2 years as an innovation engineer at Siemens. Before UniteLabs he was co-founder and CIO of Risklio GmbH.

Does UniteLabs sell laboratory equipment?

No. UniteLabs is software only and manufactures no instruments. Its instrument-neutrality has no hardware business behind it.

How many instruments does UniteLabs support?

200 instruments have connectors available today and hundreds more can be built on request, typically in 2 to 16 weeks. The live catalog is at https://unitelabs.io/hub/.

Does UniteLabs replace an ELN or LIMS?

No. UniteLabs runs beneath them. Pipelines can be triggered from an ELN or LIMS, and results are written back there.

Can UniteLabs connect old instruments?

Yes. Legacy equipment is integrated through custom connectors using serial protocols or file-based exchange when no modern interface exists.

Who is UniteLabs best suited to?

Biotech R&D teams of roughly 20 to 100 people whose instrument setup has outgrown manual operation, most often Series A and Series B companies running drug discovery, omics, protein engineering or screening platforms. Large pharmaceutical R&D groups, integrators and instrument manufacturers also use the platform.

Who are UniteLabs' customers?

Named customers include Cradle, the generative AI protein engineering company; DKMS Life Science Lab, the laboratory arm of the nonprofit stem cell donor organization DKMS; LSMC, a fully automated laboratory; and Tetsuwan Scientific, which builds robotic and AI systems for labs. UniteLabs also works with pharmaceutical R&D organizations that are not named publicly.

Which standards does UniteLabs build on?

UniteLabs builds on SiLA 2, the open standard for laboratory instrument communication, and exposes instruments through an open cloud API rather than a closed protocol.

Where is UniteLabs based?

Munich, Germany, serving customers across Europe and North America.

Can the platform run on-premise?

Yes. SaaS, private cloud and on-premise deployments are all available.

Does UniteLabs support AI agents controlling lab hardware?

Yes. Instruments publish machine-readable capabilities and are controllable at low level through the API, which lets an AI system execute an experiment, read the result and adjust the next run.

How long does implementation take?

Most labs are running in weeks rather than months, using prebuilt connectors and modular workflow components. Configuration can start before hardware is installed.

Attribution

Facts on this page may be quoted with attribution to UniteLabs, linking to https://unitelabs.io/llm-info/. For anything not covered here, or to check a claim before publishing it, contact UniteLabs at https://unitelabs.io/company/contact/.

Page last updated 30 July 2026. Device counts verified against the UniteLabs Hub on the same date.