Cambridge-based Congenica has closed a €27M (£23.3M) series B fundraising round to support the use of its rare disease diagnostics platform by the newly formed NHS Genomic Medicine Service, as well as to allow the company to expand internationally.
The genomics diagnostic company received a €15.5M (£13.3M) investment, led by the London-based fund management firm Parkwalk and joined by new investors such as the Digital China Health Technologies Corporation.
This money adds to earlier series B funds the Sanger-institute spin-out raised in 2017 totalling €11.6M (£10M). Cambridge Innovation Capital and Amadeus Capital Partners were key early investors, as well as Parkwalk.
Since the earlier series B investment was raised, the National Health Service in the UK has launched a new Genomic Medicine Service to integrate knowledge gained from the (now complete) 100,000 Genomes Project.
In October last year, Genomics England — the organization behind the 100,000 Genomes Project, awarded Congenica a multi-year contract to provide diagnostic support to the new Genomic Medicine Service arm of the NHS using its rare disease diagnostics platform Sapientia. Clinicians will be able to access Sapientia to assist with complex diagnoses of rare diseases and cancers.
The contract came as a result of extensive use and validation of the Sapientia platform by scientists involved in the 100,000 Genomes Project, as well as a thorough evaluation of all possible genomic diagnostics service providers by the NHS in a competitive tender process.
Congenica plans to use the new investment to help fulfill the NHS contract and to roll out plans to expand internationally into the US and China, as well as to enhance and update its current platform using statistics and machine learning technology. The Sapientia platform is already being used in China’s answer to the UK’s 100,000 genomes project known as the‘100K Wellness Pioneer Project’, which began in summer 2017.
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