Labcyte, a US-based company advancing acoustic liquid handling, has raised $5.3m in its series D round led by industrial conglomerate General Electric’s (GE) healthcare-focused corporate venturing fund.
GE Healthymagination, part of GE Ventures, led the D round as a new investor, with participation from venture capital firms Abingworth, Alloy Ventures, Cross Atlantic Partners, Delphi Ventures, H&Q Healthcare Investors and H&Q Life Sciences Investors.
Labcyte will use the investment to continue to expand its liquid handling systems based on the use of acoustic energy to transfer liquids.
Rafael Torres, Healthymagination fund leader at GE Ventures, said: “Innovations and research platforms, like Labcyte, are vital to improving healthcare quality and affordability.”
Labcyte raised $21m in its C round in July 2005 from a consortium also including investment bank JP Morgan’s then-venture unit, Bay Area Equity Fund, and Sprout Group.
The company was effectively formed in November 2003 by the merger of Labcyte with Picoliter.
Separately, Attivio, a US-based search engine for enterprises, has raised $8m from the GE Pension Trust.
Attivio previously raised $34m led by venture capital firm Oak Investment Partners.
Carlos Monfiglio, managing director of US private equity at GE Asset Management, which has $120bn under management, said: “Attivio’s approach to unified information access and its patented technology differentiators and superior security capabilities can help customers invent more, make more, sell more and do it all with greater efficiency.”
Raine Group served as Attivio’s advisor during the financing process for the $34m round in October, which also included backing from Per-Olof Söderberg and Tenth Avenue Holdings.