NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Gene editing technology company Inscripta said today that it that its existing investors have agreed to contribute an additional $20 million to its previously announced Series C funding round, bringing the total raised in the round to $105.5 million.
In February 2018, the company said it had raised $55.5 million from Venrock, Foresite, Mérieux Développement, Paladin Capital Group, MLS Capital, and NanoDimension. In December, the same investors contributed an additional $30 million to the round, bringing the total to $85.5 million. The same investors have now contributed the additional $20 million, Inscripta said.
The company is developing a full suite of gene editing tools — including software, instruments, and reagents — that it hopes will significantly increase the speed and efficiency of CRISPR-based gene editing.
In December 2017, Inscripta released a new CRISPR enzyme it had developed called MAD7 free of charge to the research community. The enzyme is part of the Madagascar family of nucleases that Inscripta is developing and was initially characterized in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Escherichia coli. The firm had made it available for all research with no upfront licensing fees and has said it will not charge any reach-through royalties on products made using this technology.
In July 2018, Inscripta announced that it had successfully characterized MAD7 in mammalian cells, and subsequently released a new enzyme in the Madagascar family called MAD2.
When it raised the first $55.5 million of this funding round, the firm said it planned to use the financing to expand its research capabilities — including the continued development of the MADzyme nucleases — and strengthen its internal team of high-performing research experts, as well as to accelerate the development and commercialization of its gene-editing tools.
"We are making rapid progress in developing an innovative suite of gene editing tools, and the funds from this round will help us ramp our commercialization efforts as we prepare to introduce these solutions to the market later this year," Inscripta CEO Kevin Ness said in a statement.
In September 2018, Inscripta also announced that it planned to acquire Solana Biosciences, a life sciences company founded in 2017 by former Illumina employees. The company said the acquisition would help to accelerate the commercialization of its gene editing tools by assembling a life science product development and manufacturing pipeline for precision gene editing.