This story was updated from a previous version.
NEW YORK, May 23 – Molecular Mining, a Kingston, Ontario-based bioinformatics company, said Tuesday it had raised about $8 million in a second round of financing.
The lead investor was CDP Sofinov, a subsidiary of the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec. Other investors included Business Development Bank of Canada; S.R. One Limited, a subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline; Cardinal Partners; and CMDF Queen’s Scientific Breakthrough Fund.
S.R. One Limited and Cardinal Partners also participated in Molecular Mining's initial $2 million round of financing in March 1999.
Evan Steeg, CEO of Molecular Mining, said the company would use the new resources to advance commercialization efforts for its recently launched GeneLinker software product as well as the company's collaboration and discovery services.
" There’s been a lot of industry discussion around what are the best business models for genomics and bioinformatics – is it selling tools, is it doing collaborations, is it mining your own data – we think there’s value in all three and our investors do as well, so they’ve invested in us going forward aggressively on all three," said Steeg.
In April Molecular Mining launched its first commercial product, its GeneLinker Gold gene expression analysis software. The entry-level product uses publicly available clustering algorithms and was introduced at a list price of $5,000.
Steeg said the additional funding would speed development of the company's upcoming GeneLinker Platinum and Diamond products.
Molecular Mining also expects to "more than double" its staff and open a US office in the coming year, Steeg said.