NEW YORK – DNA printing firm SGI-DNA said today that it has completed a $25 million Series A financing found.
Northpond Ventures led the round, joined by Oxford Finance and BroadOak Capital Partners.
SGI-DNA, based in San Diego, plans to use the proceeds for the global commercial launch of its BioXp 3200 system, an automated benchtop DNA printing platform. The firm will also further develop its synthetic biology workflows and expand its automated Gibson Assembly applications, including an instrument that converts digitized DNA code to biological entities and new DNA data storage solutions.
"We are very pleased to have a team of investors whose collective expertise will be critical to our successfully addressing several significant market opportunities related to the synthetic genomics and DNA data storage markets," SGI-DNA CEO Todd Nelson said in a statement. "The global commercial launch of the BioXp System marks an important point in the advancement of the synthetic genomics industry. Our fully-automated, high fidelity gene printer ushers in a new era wherein researchers will never need to clone a gene again."
Founded in 2014 as part of Synthetic Genomics, the biotech firm cofounded by Craig Venter and Hamilton Smith in 2005, SGI-DNA was spun off in March. The company has already placed several BioXp systems in Europe, including at Belgium's VIB life sciences research institute.
The firm also offers commercial licenses for Gibson Assembly, a cloning technique invented by its cofounder and CTO Daniel Gibson.