Pharmaceutical firm Novo has led a $70m series C round for US-based DNA analysis technology developer Mission Bio that included laboratory equipment and diagnostics services provider Agilent Technologies.
Cota Capital, Mayfield Fund and Soleus Capital also contributed to the round, while Novo and Agilent participated through their Novo Growth and Agilent Ventures units respectively.
The round took the company’s total funding to more than $120m, it said, and Robert Ghenchev, head of Novo Growth, has joined its board of directors.
Mission Bio has created a system called Tapestri which enables researchers and medical professionals to analyse single-cell RNA sequencing data to help develop precision medicines.
The company was spun out of University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 2014 and leverages genomics technology from UCSF’s Abate Lab. The series C cash will be used to improve the Tapestri platform and help Mission Bio carry out clinical studies for cell and gene-based cancer therapies.
Agilent Technologies, Cota Capital and Mayfield Fund participated in Mission Bio’s $30m series B round in late 2018, investing alongside Lam Research Capital, an investment vehicle for chipmaker Lam Research.
Mission Bio had completed a $10m series A round from Keiretsu Forum, Life Science Angels, Stanford University’s Stanford-StartX Fund and Tech Coast Angels the year before.
Robert Ghenchev said: “We are impressed with Mission Bio’s innate approach to data integration at the single-cell level and are excited to contribute more than capital by activating our broad life science network to support their mission to greatly impact the success and economics of precision therapy development.”
