NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) — French nucleic acid manufacturer DNA Script said today that it has closed an oversubscribed Series B round, raising $38.5 million.
The round was led by healthcare investment firm LSP and included French government investment bank Bpifrance. Also joining the round were existing investors Illumina Ventures, M Ventures, Sofinnova Partners, Kurma Partners, and Idinvest Partners.
DNA Script said it will use the funding to accelerate the development of products based on its proprietary de novo nucleic acid synthesis technology, which relies on modified nucleotides and enzymes. The company has been planning to roll out an early-access program for its platform by the end of this year.
DNA Script said it also intends to use the financing to hire product development and commercialization staffers in the US, where it recently established a subsidiary, and to bring on additional researchers in France.
"In less than two years since our last financing round … DNA Script [has become] the first company to enzymatically synthesize a 200-mer oligo de novo with an average coupling efficiency that rivals the best organic chemical processes in use today," DNA Script Cofounder and CEO Thomas Ybert said in a statement. "Our technology is now reliable enough for its first commercial applications, which we believe will deliver the promise of same-day results to researchers everywhere, with DNA synthesis that can be completed in just a few hours."
In 2017, DNA Script raised €11 million ($12.3 million) in a Series A financing round. About a year ago, it was awarded $5.5 million in grant funding from the European Commission and Bpifrance.