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Desktop Genetics Raises £1.4M in Private Funding

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – CRISPR informatics startup Desktop Genetics today announced it has raised nearly £1.4 million ($2.2 million) from venture capital and angel investors.

IQ Capital Partners, London Business Angels, the London Co-Investment Fund, Abcam founder Jonathan Milner, Martin Murphy, and Horizon Discovery CEO Darrin Disley joined in the round.

The firm said it plans to use the funds to commercialize its DeskGen genome editing software platform. It will expand its existing sales infrastructure, marketing efforts, and launch a custom guide RNA library design service.

Desktop Genetics CEO Riley Doyle said in a statement that the software has helped thousands of users and has enabled over 4,000 gene editing experiments.

The firm also said it is developing a custom cell-line engineering service with undisclosed partners.

London-based Desktop Genetics developed its CRISPR guide RNA design software in partnership with Horizon Discovery.

In August 2013, Desktop Genetics raised $582,000 in seed funding.

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