This story has been updated from a previous version.
WaferGen Biosystems has raised $7 million in capital through a $5 million private placement by its Malaysian subsidiary and a $2 million loan agreement with Oxford Finance, the company said this week.
As part of the private placement, WaferGen's Malaysian subsidiary signed a purchase agreement with previous investor Malaysian Technology Development Corporation for a $5 million private placement of Series C-1 redeemable convertible preference shares.
The purchase price of the Series C-1 preference shares is $1.55 per share and the closing is expected to occur in December 2010, WaferGen said.
MTDC has also been granted a right to purchase up to $2.5 million of Series C-2 preference shares of WaferGen's Malaysian subsidiary at a purchase price of $2.32 per share at any time within 36 months of the closing. The redeemable convertible preference shares will be converted into shares of common stock of WaferGen on a one-for-one basis within one year of issuance, the company said.
Also, the company disclosed in a recent SEC filing that it has entered into a $2 million loan agreement with Oxford Finance.
That agreement was effective Dec. 7, pursuant to a secured promissory note. The note will accrue at a fixed rate of roughly 13 percent. In connection with the loan, WaferGen issued to Oxford a warrant to purchase 95,368 shares of the firm's common stock.
The warrant is exercisable immediately at a price of $1.468 per share and expires in five years.
WaferGen, based in Fremont, Calif., said it will use the funds for general corporate purposes, including "broad commercialization of its SmartChip Real Time PCR System, which it launched in August.
Last month, WaferGen reported third-quarter revenues of $633,000, an eight-fold increase over Q3 2009 (PCR Insider, 11/18/2010). The company attributed the increase to the launch of the SmartChip system (PCR Insider, 8/5/2010).
In July, as it was preparing for the commercial launch of SmartChip, WaferGen closed a $7.2 million registered direct offering that netted the company $6.7 million (PCR Insider, 7/8/2010). The company had previously warned investors in an April prospectus that it likely would not have enough cash to continue operations through to the SmartChip launch and end of year.
WaferGen said that it finished the third quarter, ended Sept. 30, with $4.4 million in cash and cash equivalents.