Desktop Genetics said today that it has opened a £1.5 million ($2 million) investment round on online investment platform SyndicateRoom. The London-based startup plans to use the funding to commercialize its genome editing software and to expand into the US.
Desktop Genetics has developed CRISPR guide RNA (gRNA) design software as well as the recently launched DTG-Seq service, which combines targeted amplicon sequencing and internal bioinformatics expertise for validation of on- and off-target genome editing outcomes.
"This funding round provides a great opportunity as we gear up for further growth, resourcing future initiatives, hiring new team members, and launching fresh products," Desktop Genetics CEO Riley Doyle said in a statement.
Desktop Genetics and University College London received a £300,000 grant from Innovate UK in February 2016 to develop develop software tools that selectively design CRISPR/Cas9 targets against cancer cell lines that are characterized at the epigenetic level. The British software startup also nabbed an unspecified investment from Illumina and closed a £1.4 million fundraising round in late 2015.