US-based Foresite Capital and F-Prime Capital join other leading investors backing UK company at the interface of drug discovery and big data.
Genomics plc, the data science company specialising in the use of human genetic information to improve drug development, today announced that it has successfully completed a second close of its Series B financing round. The second close, which was oversubscribed, raised an additional £8 million, bringing the total raised in the round to £33 million. Both Foresite Capital and F-Prime Capital are large US healthcare investment companies and join previous investors comprising Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, IP Group, Woodford Investment Management, Invesco Perpetual, Oxford Sciences Innovation, Lansdowne Partners, and Tanarra (1).
Following the investment, Steve Knight, Managing Partner of F-Prime Capital, and Jim Tananbaum, CEO and Managing Director of Foresite Capital, will join the Board of Directors of Genomics plc.
Professor Peter Donnelly FRS, Founder and CEO, Genomics plc, said: “We are thrilled to be adding two leading US biotech and healthcare investors, F-Prime and Foresite, to our already strong cohort of strategic and institutional investors. Both investors have fantastic track records of building healthcare companies, and we look forward to their input as we move to the next phase of growth for Genomics plc.”
Genomics plc will use the proceeds of this fundraising to enable further expansion, to continue to enhance its powerful database and analytical engine, and to pursue opportunities that emerge in this fast-growing space.
Steve Knight of F-Prime Capital said: “The world-class team at Genomics plc have made great strides since the company’s inception. Genomics has the potential to improve the quality of delivery of health care and have significant impact on the development of breakthrough drugs. We are excited to join the Genomics plc team.”
Jim Tananbaum of Foresite Capital said: “Genomics plc’s platform unlocks knowledge from population-scale genetics to make drug discovery and development more efficient. Peter Donnelly, a world-class scientist in this field, has built a stellar team of scientists and engineers, and we look forward to seeing what they will accomplish for patients in the UK and around the world.”
Genomics has developed a unique analysis engine that uses genetics to understand human biology and the likely efficacy and safety of potential novel medicines. The Genomics engine is the largest of its kind in the world, with over 100 billion data points. It links human genetic variation at over 14 million positions in the human genome to changes in 8,000 molecular, cellular, and physiological measurements and disease outcomes. The company uses breakthrough proprietary machine learning and statistical algorithms to predict the impact of therapeutic interventions.
F-Prime Capital Partners is a global venture capital firm investing in life sciences, healthcare, and technology. Since 1969, F-Prime has worked closely with entrepreneurs and academics to create innovative solutions to some of the world’s most significant challenges in healthcare and technology. For more information, please visit www.fprimecapital.com.
Foresite Capital is a multi-stage healthcare and life sciences investment firm with $2 billion in assets under management. The firm seeks to address areas of great unmet medical need by funding and supporting transformative healthcare businesses. Foresite Capital has a uniquely collaborative investment model that benefits from insights generated by its multidisciplinary team of scientists, clinicians, investment analysts and engineers. It applies a rigorous scientific and data-driven approach to investment analysis. Foresite Capital understands the unique business models in healthcare and works closely with the firm’s portfolio companies at all stages of their lifecycle. The firm has offices in San Francisco and New York. For more information, please visit www.foresitecapital.com.
(1) – Tanarra invested via Tamorer Pty Ltd
Ben Atwell and Andrew Ward at FTI Consulting
+44 (0)20 3720 1000
scgenomicsplc@fticonsulting.com