Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

Chinese Nanopore Sequencing Tech Firm Axbio Raises $100M in Series B Financing

NEW YORK – Chinese sequencing technology company Axbio said on Monday that it has secured $100 million in Series B financing.

The round was led by the AstraZeneca-CICC investment fund, a joint healthcare fund run by AstraZeneca and Chinese private equity firm CICC Capital, and Yunfeng Capital, a Chinese venture capital firm backed by Alibaba Cofounder Jack Ma. Other investors in the round included Singaporean investment firm CBC Group, Chinese state-owned investment holding company State Development & Investment Corp. (SDIC), and Chinese private equity and venture capital firm 5Y Capital.

The Shenzhen-based sequencing startup said it will use the funds to support the development and commercialization of its nanopore-based sequencer, as well as to build a manufacturing facility.

Axbio’s new sequencing platform, which uses nanopores and circular consensus sequencing (CCS), is “low-cost, small, highly accurate, and can generate long read lengths,” Hui Tian, the company’s cofounder, said in a statement. In addition, it can sequence a single base repeatedly at the single-molecule level, he added. According to Tian, Axbio’s first GMP production facility will come online by the end of 2022. The company said on its website that the facility is located in Wuxi in Jiangsu province.

Founded in 2016 in Silicon Valley, Axbio said it has R&D centers both in the US and China. The company said on WeChat that it raised “tens of millions of dollars” in Series A financing in October 2021, led by Chinese venture capital firms 5Y Capital, Kaitai Capital, MSA, and Yuanxiao Huachuang Investment Management.

The Scan

Sick Newborns Selected for WGS With Automated Pipeline

Researchers successfully prioritized infants with potential Mendelian conditions for whole-genome sequencing or rapid whole-genome sequencing, as they report in Genome Medicine.

Acne-Linked Loci Found Through GWAS Meta-Analysis

Researchers in the European Journal of Human Genetics find new and known acne vulgaris risk loci with a genome-wide association study and meta-analysis, highlighting hair follicle- and metabolic disease-related genes.

Retina Cell Loss Reversed by Prime Editing in Mouse Model of Retinitis Pigmentosa

A team from China turns to prime editing to correct a retinitis pigmentosa-causing mutation in the PDE6b gene in a mouse model of the progressive photoreceptor loss condition in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

CRISPR Screens Reveal Heart Attack-Linked Gene

Researchers in PLOS Genetics have used CRISPR screens to home in on variants associated with coronary artery disease that affect vascular endothelial function.