NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – UK bioinformatics company Desktop Genetics today announced it received an equity investment of £275,000 and a £100,000 Technology Strategy Board grant for a total of £375,000 ($582,000) in funds raised.
The funds will go toward expanding the functionality of the company's AutoClone platform through internal R&D, as well as with industrial partners. Desktop said it also plans on developing a cloud-based version of the product and launching it after a beta trial is held in the fourth quarter. Additionally, it will establish business development, sales, and marketing function to serve customers in Europe and the US.
Participants in the equity investment included Boundary Capital; Execute Technologies; angel investors Richard Youngman and Michael Martin of Anvil Partners; AbCam CEO Jonathan Milner; and Horizon Discovery CEO Darrin Disley.
Disley has been appointed a non-executive chairman of Desktop.
AutoClone is a bioinformatics platform and database that sources DNA sequences required to build "any new DNA specified by the user." It reduces the length and cost of DNA synthesis, and according to Desktop CEO Riley Doyle, the platform enables researchers to recycle existing DNA "and make the genes upon which the trillion pound life science industry depends.
"By crowdsourcing the constructs that researchers need, we believe the platform can save up to 6 million man-hours per year across the entire biotech domain," Doyle said.