Orbit Discovery
Orbit Discovery is a private UK peptide discovery CRO, spun out of the University of Oxford in 2016, that uses proprietary bead-based display and microfluidic functional screening to deliver affinity and cell-based screening services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners developing peptide therapeutics, including radiopharmaceutical, nucleic-acid-delivery, and GPCR-targeted programs.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2016
- HeadquartersOxford, United Kingdom
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Orbit Discovery does
Orbit Discovery is a private peptide discovery services company spun out of the University of Oxford in 2016, headquartered at the Oxford Science Park. It provides fee-for-service affinity and functional screening of peptide libraries to pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers developing peptide therapeutics against targets including GPCRs, membrane proteins, soluble proteins, and tumour-associated antigens used in radiopharmaceutical and nucleic-acid-delivery applications. Its core platform combines a bead-based peptide display system — using in-emulsion in vitro transcription translation (emIVTT) to express peptides linked to encoding DNA on individual beads — with FACS-based affinity sorting and a proprietary droplet-microfluidic functional screening workflow that pairs single peptides with single reporter cells in micro-droplets. This architecture enables screening of millions of peptides per campaign, including linear, cyclic, and helical structures with high chemical diversity, and is differentiated from traditional phage and ribosomal display by its ability to identify functional modulators (agonists, antagonists, biased signalling) directly in cell-based assays rather than only binding hits.
The company operates a B2B enterprise sales motion targeting both Big Pharma and Small Biotech, with customisable service engagements covering radiopharmaceutical targeting, nucleic-acid delivery, targeted protein degradation, soluble protein targeting, and GPCR agonism/antagonism screening. Revenue is generated through professional-services contracts (fee-for-service) augmented by milestone or option structures on partnered programs; pricing is not publicly disclosed. As of late 2024, the company has secured multiple strategic collaborations — including expanded agreements with Evergreen Theragnostics (Dec 2024), Secarna Pharmaceuticals (May 2024), Orano Med (Sept 2023), Evergreen Discovery (April 2023), Endevica Bio (Feb 2023), SanegeneBio (Jan 2023), and a technology partnership with WuXi AppTec (Mar 2022) — establishing radiopharmaceutical targeting, nucleic-acid delivery, and GPCR discovery as its primary commercial verticals.
The company is privately held and backed by Oxford Sciences Innovation (now Oxford Science Enterprises), Borealis Ventures, Perivoli Innovations, Oxford University Innovation, and RT Ventures, following a $7.6M funding round in July 2021 supplemented by a £472K Innovate UK Smart Grant in June 2022. It is led by CEO Dr Neil Butt, with CTO Anthony Pitt overseeing technology operations and scientific founders Professor Graham Ogg and Professor Terry Rabbitts providing research continuity to the underlying bead-display IP.
Orbit Discovery firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Orbit Discovery
- Legal name
- Orbit Discovery Ltd.
- Website
- https://orbitdiscovery.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2016
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Orbit Discovery is a private UK peptide discovery CRO, spun out of the University of Oxford in 2016, that uses proprietary bead-based display and microfluidic functional screening to deliver affinity and cell-based screening services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners developing peptide therapeutics, including radiopharmaceutical, nucleic-acid-delivery, and GPCR-targeted programs.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Orbit Discovery industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Peptide Discovery Services
- NAICS
- Scientific Research and Development Services (5417), Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714)
- SIC
- Services-Misc Health & Allied Services, Nec (8090)
- akta.pro primary industry
- High-Throughput Screening & Assay Platforms (HTS/HCS, phenotypic screening) (HLAAAIAA)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Drug Discovery (Target ID/Validation & Hit Discovery) (HLAIALAA), Therapeutic Peptides & Protein/Peptide Biologics (HLAAAAAH)
Keywords
Where Orbit Discovery is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Oxford
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
Orbit Discovery business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Peptide Discovery Services: Orbit Discovery provides fee-for-service peptide discovery services for therapeutic applications including radionuclide targeting, nucleic acid targeting, targeted protein degradation, soluble protein targeting, and GPCR agonism and antagonism. Services are customizable for both affinity screening and functional screening using proprietary reporter cell lines.
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels5 records
Orbit Discovery product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Orbit Discovery provides fee-for-service peptide discovery for therapeutic applications, combining a proprietary bead-based peptide display system with microfluidic high-throughput screening. The company delivers customizable affinity screening (using FACS against soluble targets, GPCRs, ion channels) and cell-based functional screening (identifying agonists and antagonists against reporter cell lines) across massive chemical spaces including linear and macrocyclic peptides. Service offerings are organized around four therapeutic application areas: radiopharmaceutical targeting, nucleic acid delivery, soluble protein targeting, and GPCR agonism/antagonism discovery.
Product overview
Orbit Discovery operates as a peptide discovery services company built around its proprietary Orbit Peptide Discovery Platform. The platform combines bead-based display technology and microfluidics to perform high-throughput screening across massive chemical spaces. The core platform supports two main screening modalities: Affinity Screening Services (for identifying binders against soluble targets, GPCRs, and ion channels) and Functional Screening Services (for identifying functional agonists and antagonists in cell-based assays). These screening capabilities are applied through four application services: Radiopharmaceutical Targeting (for radionuclide delivery peptides), Nucleic Acid Delivery (for targeted RNA therapeutics), Soluble Protein Targeting (for PROTACs and molecular glues), and GPCR agonism/antagonism screening. The company serves pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners seeking peptide therapeutic candidates.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Orbit Peptide Discovery Platform The Orbit Peptide Discovery Platform is Orbit's core proprietary technology combining DNA-encoded bead-based peptide display with microfluidic screening for high-throughput affinity and functional screening of very large peptide libraries, including linear and macrocyclic peptides. It is used by Orbit's scientific team to deliver customised peptide discovery services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners.
- Affinity Screening Services FACS-based high-throughput affinity screening service that interrogates large populations of bead-displayed peptides to identify binders against soluble protein targets, cell surface targets, GPCRs, and ion channels. Delivered to pharma and biotech clients seeking high-affinity peptide hits for downstream therapeutic development.
- Functional Screening Services Microfluidic cell-based functional screening service that screens millions of peptides directly against reporter cell lines using a One Peptide: One Cell approach, enabling identification of GPCR agonists, antagonists, and other functional modulators rather than just binders. Sold to pharma and biotech clients needing biologically active peptide hits for therapeutic programmes.
- Radiopharmaceutical Targeting Services Application-specific peptide discovery service for radiopharmaceutical programmes. Combines bead-based display with flow cytometry to identify high-affinity peptide conjugates that deliver radionuclides to tumor-specific targets with high specificity and minimal off-target binding. Targeted at radiopharmaceutical developers, including partners such as Evergreen Theragnostics and Orano Med.
- Nucleic Acid Delivery Services Application-specific peptide discovery service for targeted nucleic acid (RNA) delivery. Uses bead-based display and FACS screening to identify peptides with strong affinities for disease-specific targets and validates large numbers of peptides for cellular internalisation. Targeted at antisense oligonucleotide and RNAi therapeutics developers such as Secarna Pharmaceuticals and SanegeneBio.
- Soluble Protein Targeting Services Application-specific peptide discovery service targeting soluble proteins, including identification of actuators for Targeted Protein Degradation (PROTACs and molecular glues). Supports multiple selections, counter-target screening, and precise tuning to binding sites for coupling high-affinity binders to ubiquitin ligases. Sold to pharma and biotech clients developing degraders and other soluble protein modulators.
Quantifiable outcome
- Screening millions of peptides in a single experiment vs. tens of thousands with traditional platforms
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use Orbit Discovery
Customer profileNamed customers6 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Orbit Discovery technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature5 records
Orbit Discovery partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.
- Evergreen TheragnosticscoreExpansion of research collaboration to find novel targeting peptides for radiopharmaceutical delivery. Expanded upon previous April 2023 agreement. Collaboration leverages Orbit's proprietary screening platform combined with Evergreen's expertise in radiopharmaceutical development and clinical translation.
- Secarna PharmaceuticalscoreCollaboration to discover and develop peptide-based targeted antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapeutics. Leverages Orbit's bead-based peptide display engine for identification, screening, and selection of cyclic peptides specific to disease targets to be paired with Secarna's ASO molecules.
- Orano MedcoreCollaboration to discover specific Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapies against cancer cells. Orbit deploys its bead-based peptide display engine to discover peptide leads specific to tumour-related targets. Orano Med focuses on subsequent development using lead-212 alpha emitter.
- Evergreen DiscoverymajorCollaboration to identify specific cell targeting peptides and advance development of novel radiopharmaceuticals. Agreement covers activities from designing peptide libraries, hit identification to hit validation to confirm cell surface binding properties.
- Endevica BiomajorMulti-target research agreement to advance development of cachexia therapeutics. Collaboration aims to accelerate development of advanced GPCR-targeting therapeutics using Orbit's functional screening platform to identify peptide hits against selected library populations.
- SanegeneBiomajorMaster Service Agreement to identify tissue-specific delivery mechanisms for RNA therapeutics. Collaboration covers activities from hit ID to cell-based internalisation studies, with option for Sanegene to further develop resulting hits.
- WuXi AppTeccoreAgreement to access peptide discovery and optimisation technologies. Orbit gains access to WuXi AppTec's expertise in peptide optimisation, production, manufacturing, cell line and assay development, and biophysical analysis. First strategic technology link Orbit penned since formation in 2016.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Orbit Discovery competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Bicycle Therapeutics: Bicycle Therapeutics develops bicyclic peptide therapeutics (Bicycles) using a proprietary phage-display-like constrained peptide platform. It is the largest publicly traded peptide-discovery platform company and the closest large-scale comparable to Orbit's bead-display peptide approach.
- PeptiDream: PeptiDream operates the Peptide Discovery Platform System (PDPS), a non-standard peptide discovery platform serving major pharma partners. It is a direct functional analogue to Orbit as a discovery engine, with a much larger partner base and public-company scale.
- GenScript ProBio: GenScript offers peptide synthesis, screening, and discovery services to pharma/biotech. Comparable to Orbit as a peptide discovery service provider, but at vastly larger scale and broader service scope.
- AbCellera Biologics: AbCellera operates an AI-powered antibody discovery platform serving pharma/biotech. Closely analogous business model (B2B discovery services, proprietary platform, repeat partners) but focused on antibodies rather than peptides.
- Distributed Bio (Charles River Laboratories): Distributed Bio offered antibody and peptide library/screening services before being acquired by Charles River Laboratories. Comparable B2B discovery platform model now operating inside a global CRO infrastructure.
Direct peers
- Philogen: Philogen designs and develops peptide-based targeting ligands for radiopharmaceutical delivery and other applications. Overlaps directly with Orbit's radiopharmaceutical targeting service and shares the same class of tumor-targeting peptide customers (e.g., Orano Med ecosystem).
- Nimble Therapeutics: Nimble Therapeutics is a peptide discovery platform combining high-throughput chemistry with screening to discover therapeutic peptides against challenging targets. Directly comparable service model and target-class focus to Orbit.
- Protagonist Therapeutics: Protagonist uses a proprietary peptide technology platform to discover and develop peptide therapeutics, with marketed product (Rusfertide) and pipeline assets. Comparable platform-to-product evolution path Orbit could pursue.
- IONTAS (FairJourney Biologics): IONTAS pioneered mammalian display for antibody discovery and was acquired by FairJourney Biologics in 2020. Closely analogous discovery platform company with similar services-based model; CEO Neil Butt's former company.
Regional players
- Creative Peptides: Creative Peptides provides custom peptide synthesis and peptide discovery services, primarily serving US and global biotech clients. Smaller-scale comparable CRO in the peptide discovery services market where Orbit competes.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat3 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Orbit Discovery social profiles
Digital presenceOrbit Discovery financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Orbit Discovery leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles10 records
Orbit Discovery funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds4 records
Investors8 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Orbit Discovery M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Orbit Discovery
What does Orbit Discovery do?
Orbit Discovery provides fee-for-service peptide discovery for therapeutic applications, combining a proprietary bead-based peptide display system with microfluidic high-throughput screening. The company delivers customizable affinity screening (using FACS against soluble targets, GPCRs, ion channels) and cell-based functional screening (identifying agonists and antagonists against reporter cell lines) across massive chemical spaces including linear and macrocyclic peptides. Service offerings are organized around four therapeutic application areas: radiopharmaceutical targeting, nucleic acid delivery, soluble protein targeting, and GPCR agonism/antagonism discovery.
Is Orbit Discovery a public or private company?
Orbit Discovery is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Orbit Discovery founded?
Orbit Discovery was founded in 2016. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Orbit Discovery based?
Orbit Discovery is headquartered in Oxford, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does Orbit Discovery make money?
One revenue line is on record: peptide Discovery Services.
Who are Orbit Discovery's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Bicycle Therapeutics, PeptiDream, GenScript ProBio, AbCellera Biologics and Distributed Bio (Charles River Laboratories). Direct peers are Philogen, Nimble Therapeutics, Protagonist Therapeutics and IONTAS (FairJourney Biologics). Creative Peptides is listed as a regional player.
Does Orbit Discovery have an API?
No public API is recorded for Orbit Discovery.
What industry is Orbit Discovery in?
Orbit Discovery's product category is Peptide Discovery Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HLAAAIAA, High-Throughput Screening & Assay Platforms (HTS/HCS, phenotypic screening), with a secondary code of HLAIALAA, Drug Discovery (Target ID/Validation & Hit Discovery). Its NAICS code is 5417 and its SIC code is 8090.