NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Oxford Nanopore Technologies said today that it has raised £100 million ($140 million) in new funding from a number of international investors, bringing its total raised so far to £451 million.
The funding round includes investments from GIC in Singapore, CCB International in China, Hostplus in Australia, and existing investors.
The company plans to use the new capital to build a manufacturing facility near Oxford, to grow its commercial team, and to support the development of nanopore platforms. The new 34,000 square-foot manufacturing facility will go up on the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus near Oxford and will be used to manufacture and distribute the company's DNA and RNA sequencing products.
"Oxford Nanopore has a unique business model of providing accessible, real-time DNA-analysis technologies that can be applied to pocket-sized or industrial installations. We believe this will continue to drive growth in their user base as well as in new applications for DNA or RNA sequencing," said Bryan Yeo, chief investment officer of public equities at GIC, in a statement. "This investment reflects our confidence in the global demand outlook for DNA information across many industries over the long term."
"We are excited by the possibilities of Oxford Nanopore technology to develop new applied markets and to revolutionize testing," including in oncology, infectious disease, reproductive health, and blood screening, said Hostplus CEO David Elia in a statement.
According to a CCBI spokesperson, sequencing technology has the potential to enable new applications in life science research, research, food, and other industries in China.
"Our business is moving quickly, from personal sequencers into high-end sequencing and distributed analyses," said Oxford Nanopore CEO Gordon Sanghera in a statement.
Last year, the company had $23.5 million worth of orders for its sequencing platforms and it expects orders worth $75 million this year.
Oxford Nanopore recently moved into new headquarters in Oxford and has another location in Cambridge, UK. It also has commercial offices in New York; Cambridge, Massachusetts; China; Japan; France; and Germany. In addition, it is in the process of opening new operations in Shanghai and San Francisco.