Inivata, a UK-based precision cancer diagnostics spinout of University of Cambridge and Cancer Research UK, increased a series C round featuring cancer diagnostics service provider NeoGenomics to $60m today.
Healthcare investment firm Soleus Capital is leading the round, which includes IP Group, Janus Henderson Investors and Farallon Capital. The first $25m was provided by NeoGenomics as part of a strategic collaboration agreement in May 2020.
Founded in 2014, Inivata has created a highly sensitive personalised assay called Radar that facilitates the detection and monitoring of minimal residual disease – a small number of cancer cells that can remain in the body during or following treatment – and cancer recurrence.
Minimal residual disease detection requires processes that can find one tumour cell among a million normal cells. Inivata had previously focused on marketing Radar to biopharmaceutical companies but the extra cash will be used to accelerate the clinical development and rollout of Radar to patients more directly.
The money will also support the continued rollout of Inivata’s liquid biopsy test, InVisionFirst-Lung, for advanced non-small cell lung cancer.
The company secured $6m in a 2014 seed round led by Imperial Innovations, which has since been acquired by IP Group, and backed by Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, the investment arm of medical products group Johnson & Johnson, and Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC).
Inivata went on to raise $45m in series A financing in 2016 from Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, CIC, Imperial Innovations and Woodford Patient Capital Trust, which later collapsed before it was rescued by Schroder and rebranded to Schroder UK Public Private Trust.
Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC then participated in a $52.2m series B round for the company in early 2019 together with CIC, IP Group, Woodford Patient Capital Trust and RT Ventures.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.
