Desktop Genetics raises £1.37M in funding

September 15, 2015

It is our pleasure to announce our latest fundraising round for £1.37M GBP ($2.15M USD) from a syndicate of VCs and angel investors, including IQ Capital Partners, London Business Angels, the London Co-Investment Fund, Dr Jonathan Milner (Deputy Chairman and Founder of Abcam plc), Dr Martin Murphy (CEO of Syncona Partners LLP) and Dr Darrin M Disley (CEO of Horizon Discovery Group plc).

This latest round of investment will enable us to continue to commercialize our proprietary DESKGEN genome editing software platform, which enables researchers to expertly design and perform CRISPR-based genome editing experiments in virtually any cell line or species. We will be investing significantly in the expansion of our existing sales infrastructure, expand marketing efforts to drive new user registrations, and also launching a custom sgRNA library design service for users engaged in functional genomics, target identification and validation.

The DESKGEN platform makes CRISPR gene editing more predictable, accessible and efficient, arming scientists with all of the capabilities they need to scale their genomics research. Users are walked through every step of the CRISPR gene editing process with a suite of lab-validated algorithms derived from leading peer-reviewed research and industry expertise. In addition to enhancing researchers’ productivity and reducing the time and cost of gene editing with software tools, we also offer CRISPR library design, synthesis and screening services, and we are now partnering with specialist companies to create a high-throughput cell line engineering service in the cloud.

We are incredibly grateful to our investors for making the next stage of development possible, and we are all very excited about the next phase of our growth. It is an exciting time to be in the healthcare sector as the convergence of biology and software promises to have a great impact on human healthcare via application of gene editing in areas such as gene therapy, cell therapy and the development of personalized medicines.

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