Oxford Nanopore, a UK-based DNA sequencing technology spinout of University of Oxford, secured £195m ($270m) in equity financing today from investors including imaging technology producer Nikon.
IP Group, Temasek, Wellington Management and M&G Investment also took part in the round, alongside unnamed existing backers, at a valuation of $3.4bn.
Founded in 2005, Oxford Nanopore has developed DNA and RNA sequencing technology which provides analytics in real time. It is fully scalable from handheld devices for use in the field, through to benchtop products and population-scale platforms.
The company is seeking an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange in the second half of 2021 and reportedly hired book-running managers last month. Amadeus Capital Partners purchased $24m of shares through a secondary transaction in February this year, reportedly valuing it at $2.4bn.
Oxford Nanopore had previously raised approximately $800m in funding, securing $108m from RPMI Railpen and a range of new and existing shareholders, of which only diversified holding group International Holdings Company was identified, in October 2020.
The company had previously closed a $98.1m round five months earlier that reportedly included internet group Tencent.
Pharmaceutical firm Amgen, genomics technology provider Illumina and financial services firm China Construction Bank are among Oxford Nanopore’s backers, as are GIC, GT Healthcare, Hostplus, Invesco Perpetual, Lansdowne Partners, Odey Asset Management and Top Technology Ventures.
Oxford Nanopore’s shareholder list also includes WCM Partners Healthcare, the recently launched Cayman Islands-based fund managed by Neil Woodford, who had owned shares in the company through the since-collapsed Woodford Investment Management.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing. Image courtesy of Oxford Nanopore.