Congenica raises $50m to power global genomic medicine revolution
Congenica has raised $50million (£39m) in a Series C funding round that will propel further global expansion.
The digital health company, which specialises in genomic analysis, said the funding would also help it expand its product platform into somatic cancer, wellness and through partnerships with pharmaceutical companies.
It also envisages integrating with existing electronic health systems and delivering fully automated interpretation capability.
The round was co-led by Tencent and Legal & General. Other new investors included Xeraya, Puhua Capital and IDO Investments, while existing investors Parkwalk, Cambridge Innovation Capital and Downing also participated.
Congenica CEO Dr David Atkins said: “Genomic medicine is revolutionising healthcare, transforming outcomes for patients by providing clinicians with fast, accurate and early diagnoses and the information needed to provide life-changing answers for their patients, improving wellbeing and disease management.
“This new funding will allow us to build on our established foundation in rare disease and bring the power of our platform to new indications and new markets. We welcome our new investors to Congenica and are grateful to our existing investors for their continued support.”
The company, born out of research from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the NHS, won Medtech Company of the Year at the Cambridge Independent Science and Technology Awards last year.
The win reflected its success in being named the exclusive clinical decision support service provider for the NHS Genomic Medicine Service - a world first. Congenica’s platform enables clinicians to interpret next-generation sequencing data rapidly to help personalise treatments for patients.
The software is said to perform 20 times faster than industry averages and provide a 30 per cent higher analytical yield, which reduces genomic interpretation costs by up to 95 per cent.
Integration of its software into existing systems and infrastructure, and the development of further machine learning capabilities would help more health systems around the world make better use of the power of genomic medicine, Congenica said.
The company, based on the Wellcome Genome Campus at Hinxton, is already operating in 18 countries.
Dr Ling Ge, chief European representative and general manager of Tencent, said: “Congenica’s market leading technology is designed to enable the delivery of personalised medicine at scale and be fully integrated into routine healthcare customers’ clinical practice on a global basis. This represents a significant competitive advantage and the potential to bring genomic medicine into routine use across multiple disease areas driving healthcare systems internationally. We look forward to supporting Congenica as it continues to find innovative solutions to transform healthcare”.
Jessica McCreadie, investment director of health and care, Legal & General Retail Retirement: “We are growing our reputation as an investor in the health, wellness and longevity sectors as part of our desire to help people live longer, happier and healthier lives. Congenica’s technology platform is market leading and the expanding team has the experience to deliver on its huge potential.
“We are excited by the change Congenica will affect over the coming years in delivering preventative, personalised healthcare.”
Lazard acted as sole financial advisor to Congenica.
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