NEWS
Doroth raises R $ 23 million to build Latin America’ s first microfluidic chip factory
Brazilian deeptech Doroth has secured R $ 23 million in earlystage funding to build what it says will be Latin America’ s first factory dedicated to manufacturing microfluidic chips for molecular diagnostics.
The round, led by Brazilian biotechnology company Loccus, combined private investment with grant funding from Finep and Fapesp. Doroth will use the capital to expand research, development and production as it moves from technology validation towards industrial-scale manufacturing.
Founded in 2019 in Piracicaba, São Paulo state, Doroth develops lab-on-a-chip platforms designed to compress multiple laboratory processes into compact automated devices. Its technology combines sample preparation, genetic extraction, amplification and readout on a single microfluidic chip.
The planned facility will have capacity to produce up to four million chips annually, including devices containing proprietary embedded reagents. Doroth said its platforms could detect pathogens, genetically modified organisms and antimicrobial resistance genes in agricultural and food samples including leaves, seeds, grains, milk and meat.
Under the partnership, Doroth will focus on product development and fundraising while Loccus provides manufacturing infrastructure, regulatory expertise and distribution capabilities.
Loccus CEO Eduardo Araújo said the companies brought complementary strengths, combining Doroth’ s scientific expertise with Loccus’ production capacity.
The investment is also intended to reduce Brazil’ s dependence on imported reagents, sensors and diagnostic components by establishing a domestic technology supply chain.
Doroth co-founder Rodrigo Gurdos said the partnership marked its transition from research and validation towards scaled production, potentially widening access to decentralised molecular diagnostics across Brazil’ s agribusiness sector while creating a commercial platform for broader regional diagnostic applications.
Telxius deploys Nokia 800G optics to expand Latin America network capacity
Telxius is deploying Nokia’ s 800G coherent pluggable optics across its terrestrial networks in Latin America, expanding capacity as AI, cloud and data centre traffic places increasing pressure on regional connectivity infrastructure.
The upgrade will use Nokia’ s ICE-X 800G ZR / ZR + technology to increase capacity across Telxius’ existing fibre infrastructure through IP-over-DWDM networking. The companies said the approach would reduce power consumption, optimise space and lower network expansion costs.
The deployment targets key connectivity corridors where AI workloads, cloud services and data centre interconnection are driving demand for higher bandwidth and more efficient optical transport.
Nokia’ s network automation technology will also be introduced, giving Telxius greater visibility and control across its optical network. The platform will support fault and performance monitoring alongside coordinated service provisioning, helping improve operational efficiency and service predictability.
The rollout follows a demonstration of Nokia ICE-X 800G ZR + coherent pluggable optics over Telxius’ BRUSA subsea cable. The trial achieved 400Gb / s per wavelength across more than 5,600km, highlighting the technology’ s potential for ultra-long-haul subsea infrastructure.
Jesús María Rubio, Chief Technology and Information Officer, Telxius, said the deployment would strengthen the company’ s ability to deliver high-capacity, resilient and energy-efficient connectivity.
Ron Johnson, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Optical Networks, Nokia, said rising AI traffic between hyperscale data centres and network hubs required greater scalability, efficiency and operational simplicity.
The project will also strengthen integration between Telxius’ terrestrial and subsea networks across Latin America. It forms part of Telxius’ strategy to scale regional infrastructure for digital growth.
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