UK-based drug discovery engine developer Genomics extended a series B round that includes pharmaceutical manufacturer Vertex Pharmaceuticals to £33m ($41.7m) today with the close of an oversubscribed $10.2m second tranche.
The extension included F-Prime Capital, the venture capital firm formed by financial services group Fidelity, and healthcare investment firm Foresite Capital. It followed a first tranche raised in August 2018.
Vertex led the first close, which included university venture fund Oxford Sciences Innovation, commercialisation firm IP Group, Woodford Investment Management, Lansdowne Partners, Tanarra Capital and Invesco Perpetual.
Founded in 2014 as a spinout from University of Oxford, Genomics has developed a machine learning-powered genomic analytics platform that examines more than 100 billion genomic data points to forecast the impact of potential therapies.
The series B cash will go toward Genomics’ expansion plans as the company looks to enhance its data sets and the underlying analytics technology.
Steve Knight, managing partner of F-Prime Capital, will join the Genomics board of directors alongside Jim Tananbaum, CEO and managing director of Foresite Capital.
The spinout had already received $16.2m in a 2014 series A round backed by University of Oxford, IP Group and its IP Venture Fund II, Invesco Perpetual, Lansdowne, Woodford Investment and Wylie Family Trust.
Genomics was co-founded by Peter Donnelly, professor of statistical science and former director of Oxford’s Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, together with Gil McVean, director of Big Data Institute.
Chris Spencer and Gerton Lunter, who work at the Wellcome Centre as a research scientist and professor respectively, also helped start the company.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.