Oxford Nanopore raises 140M € from international investors
Funding used for production capacity and commercialization of novel products
Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd has raised £100M ($140M) in new investment. Funds were raised from global investors including GIC (Singapore), China Construction Bank International (CCBI, China), Hostplus (Australia), and existing investors.
The funds will be used to support the Company’s next phase of commercial expansion. This includes a new high-volume, high-tech manufacturing facility in Oxford to meet accelerating demand for Oxford Nanopore’s sequencing technology, and growth of the commercial team that already serves more than 70 countries.
The funds raised will also support R&D as Oxford Nanopore expands its suite of nanopore analysis devices. The currently available pocket MinION and desktop GridION are being joined by high-throughput modular sequencing with PromethION and small, single-test sequencing with Flongle.
This expanded range is designed to address all parts of the existing DNA-sequencing market, as well as enabling new applications that can only be performed with a real-time, scalable, long-read technology. For example, Flongle is designed to enable the rapid real-time genetic analysis of infectious diseases, targeted analyses in precision medicine, food and/or water-safety surveillance, and science education. PromethION will enable large-scale, on-demand sequencing of human, plant, or animal genomes.
Oxford Nanopore technology also uniquely enables direct RNA sequencing, providing full-length transcript and viral genome profiling, precise quantification, the ability to identify modified bases in real time, and simplifying workflows.
Dr Gordon Sanghera, CEO, Oxford Nanopore, said: ‘Our business is moving quickly, from personal sequencers into high-end sequencing and distributed analyses. In recent weeks, both Oxford Nanopore and our customers have shown very high yields of data from PromethION Flow Cells, demonstrating low-cost long-read nanopore sequencing at large scale. Meanwhile, we are driving a change in how scientists and industries access DNA information, by introducing smaller, accessible, low-cost formats, including our forthcoming smartphone sequencer SmidgION. Our investors are ambitious and support our long-term vision: to enable the analysis of any living thing, by anyone, anywhere.
‘We would also like to thank the innovative community of nanopore users, who have been instrumental in driving new uses for our products.’
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