If we can ignore the sorry state of public companies for a moment, let’s talk about the more encouraging news about private companies’ fundraising records in 2002. A review by Genome Technology’s online sister publication GenomeWeb.com found that pure-play genomic tool and technology companies reported raising about $102.7 million in private-equity cash since January, down only slightly from the $115 million that similar companies reported pocketing during the same eight-month period last year.
And if this year continues to mimic last, the best could be yet to come. In the last four months of 2001 genomic firms reported raising some $300 million. In fact, things might already be on the upswing.
According to VentureWire, a VC tracking firm, venture-capital interest in biotech companies, which includes genomic technology customers and a small number of vendors, actually increased 44 percent during the three months ending in June 2002.
Still, the tool and tech sector has some catching up to do. Following is a glimpse of the eight VC investments reported since January 2002 and the 24 rounds reported throughout 2001.
2002 Year-to-date
Dharmacon Research,
Aug. 27 — $5.7 million
Zyomyx, Series E,
July 30 — $27 million
HandyLab, Series B,
July 25 — $5.5 million
Hybrigenics, Series C,
April 12 — $14.8 million
Gyros, Series B,
April 11 — $36 million
Gentris, undisclosed round,
March 19 — $1.5 million
Beyond Genomics, undisclosed round,
Feb. 13 — $11 million
High Throughput Genomics, Series A,
Jan. 21 — $1.3 million
2001 — Total year
Syrrx, undisclosed round,
Dec. 26 — $18.5 million
MitoKor, undisclosed round,
Dec. 20 — $25 million
Avalon, Series B,
Dec. 17 — $70 million
ExonHit, Series C,
Dec. 3 — $26.8 million
Fluidigm, Series C,
Nov. 12 — $34 million
Glycominds, undisclosed round,
Nov. 7 — $7.1 million
Atto Bioscience, Series A,
Oct. 29 — $3 million
GeneFormatics, Series C,
Oct. 17 — $22 million
Protedyne, Series B,
Oct. 12 — $12 million
Galileo Genomics, undisclosed round,
Oct. 10 — $16.5 million
Sagres Discovery, undisclosed round,
Oct. 3 — $20 million
Solexa, Series B,
Sept. 24 — $12 million
EuroProteome, undisclosed round,
Sept. 17 — $8.7 million
Entelos, undisclosed round,
Sept. 6 — $25 million
LaunchCyte, undisclosed round,
Aug. 8 — $700,000
Viaken, Series B,
June 25 — $13 million
DNAPrint, undisclosed round,
June 18 — $2 million
AlgoNomics, Series B,
June 5 — $1.5 million
DeveloGen, undisclosed round,
April 18 — $35 million
LifeSpan Biosciences, Series C,
April 17 — $19 million
Nanostream, Series B,
March 30 — $10 million
LumiCyte, undisclosed round,
March 26 — $20 million
Proteologics, undisclosed round,
March 5 — $14 million
[Editor’s note: This list comprises only those private-equity rounds announced by genomic, proteomic, bioinformatic, and microarray companies that were reported by GenomeWeb. This list does not include government grants, equity investments tied to R&D collaborations, private stock placements, or any other form of cash infusion not related to venture capital.]
Kirell Lakhman is editor of GenomeWeb.com.