NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Horizon Discovery today announced a £6.9 million ($10.5 million) final closing to its Series C funding round, bringing the total raised in the round to £18.2 million.
The closing of the round, the Cambridge, UK-based life science research tools firm said, will enable it to transition from a three-year investment phase to an organic growth phase "that it forecasts will deliver sustainable profit" from the second half of this year.
Jonathan Milner, CEO of Abcam, led the round. Existing investors DFJ Esprit, MVM Life Science, Roche Venture Fund, David Evans, Peter Collins, and Providence Investment Company also participated. New investors in the round included Wren Capital, Calculus Capital, the University of Cambridge Enterprise Fund, and Horizon's senior management team.
The funding will go toward driving profitability in five areas, Horizon said, including sales of defined cell line production and discovery research services powered by the Genesis and X-Man translational genomics platform; sales of the more than 500 genetically defined X-Man cell lines and associated reporter gene assay kits; and expansion of the company's product development capabilities, product inventory, and channels to market of its molecular diagnostics reagents division.
The funding will also be used to increase sales of engineering services and cell line products for the optimization of the production of ethical biopharmaceuticals, and the delivery of discovery research programs, including "the harvest of [more than] £100 million preclinical and clinical milestone payments already in place," Horizon said.