UK-based genetic data science company Genomics closed a £25m ($32.5m) series B round today led by pharmaceutical firm Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
Oxford Sciences Innovation, the university venture fund of University of Oxford, also backed the round, as did commercialisation firm IP Group, Woodford Investment Management, Invesco Perpetual, Lansdowne Partners and Tanarra.
Spun out of University of Oxford in 2014, Genomics has built an analytics platform that uses machine learning to scour more than 100 billion genomic data points in order to predict what impact a given therapy will have.
The spinout will use the money to drive expansion efforts and further develop its database. Vertex has signed a collaboration agreement with Genomics to develop medicines for patients suffering from serious diseases.
Genomics previously raised $16.2m in a series A round in 2014 backed by University of Oxford, IP Group and its IP Venture Fund II, Invesco Perpetual, Lansdowne Partners, Woodford Investment Management and Wylie Family Trust.
Peter Donnelly, founder and chief executive, Genomics, said: “We are delighted to be supported by such a strong cadre of strategic and institutional investors.
“This fundraising will help us leverage our deep expertise in data science and genetics, our world-leading database of genomic information, and proprietary machine-learning algorithms to help bring greater precision to the discovery of new drugs.”