NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Complete Genomics said today that it has raised $45 million from new and previous investors, and it will use the funds to build up its Silicon Valley genome sequencing facility.
The Series D financing included two new investors, Essex Woodlands Health Ventures and OrbiMed Advisors, as well as investments from Enterprise Partners Venture Capital, OVP Venture Partners, Prospect Venture Partners, and Highland Capital Management.
"This new capital will enable us to scale up our facilities in preparation for large customer projects. We now plan to launch our large-scale commercial sequencing center in January 2010 with the goal of sequencing 10,000 human genomes next year," Complete Genomics President and CEO Clifford Reid said in a statement.
The firm plans to offer sequencing services based on its own technology to academic and biopharmaceutical industry researchers who are conducting large-scale genomics studies.
Reid noted that Complete Genomics closed the funding round six months later than the company had planned "due to the collapse of capital markets."
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company also has added two new directors, C. Thomas Caskey, who is an adjunct partner at Essex Woodland Health Ventures and was president of the American Society of Human Genetics, and Carl Gordon, who is a founding general partner of OrbiMed and a former fellow at The Rockefeller University.
"I have been involved in DNA sequencing for many years and believe that Complete Genomics' technology has the potential to revolutionize the market by providing researchers with access to large-scale genome sequencing," Caskey said in the statement.