NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Syntekabio, a bioinformatics startup from South Korea, said today that it has closed a ₩12 billion ($11.2 million) Series B round of venture capital. Smilegate Investment led the round, with participation from the Korea Development Bank, Korea Fixed-Income Investment Advisory, The Yozma Group Korea, and previous investor Altos Ventures.
Sytekabio has developed a genomic data analysis platform and an artificial intelligence-driven system for drug discovery, both built on a high-performance computing backbone. The company is getting ready to introduce a genome analysis service on the Naver Business Platform, a major Korean cloud host.
With the new funding, Syntekabio plans on consolidating three offices into a single headquarters in Seoul while keeping its main R&D facility in the technology hub of Daejon, South Korea. The money also will assist with a planned international expansion.
"Our platforms have already been adopted into the discovery workflow of top pharmaceutical firms in Korea and [the] next step in our progress is to validate with an established global pharmaceutical firm and to deploy our solutions to international markets," CEO Tyson Kim said in a statement.
Syntekabio previously had a $5.6 million Series A round in 2016 and has raised upwards of $19 million in total, according to the company.