Prenetics, a China-based genetic testing services provider backed by e-commerce group Alibaba and insurance firm Ping An, is set for a reverse merger with special purpose acquisition company Artisan Acquisition Corp.
Prenetics will be valued at approximately $1.25bn through the deal and will take over Artisan’s listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market, which it received through a $399m initial public offering in May this year.
Artisan was founded by Adrian Cheng, CEO of property conglomerate New World Development, and will provide Prenetics with access to Cheng’s network across the retail, hospitality, healthcare and property sectors.
The merger is supported by a $120m private investment in public equity transaction backed by conglomerate Lippo, Aspex Management, PAG, Dragonstone, Xen Capital and undisclosed investors.
Prenetics started out as a provider of at-home DNA and blood testing services but pivoted to covid-19 testing at the onset of the pandemic. It has conducted more than 5 million tests globally and plans to expand its screening services to other infectious diseases and colorectal cancer.
The business, then known as Multigene, was initially spun out of the City University of Hong Kong in 2009.
Prenetics will use the proceeds of the merger deal to drive its growth and fund strategic acquisitions, research and development and product launches. It also intends to expand into the United States as well as the Europe the Middle East and Africa and Southeast Asia regions.
Prenetics had raised approximately $68m prior to the deal. Alibaba’s Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund and Apis Partners’ Apis Insurtech Fund I co-led a $15m series C round in September 2020.
The company raised $40m in its series B round in 2017, which was co-led by Alibaba’s Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund and Beyond Ventures with additional investment from Yuantai Investment Partners, mFund and eGarden Ventures.
Ping An led a $10m series A round the year before that also included Venturra Capital, 500 Global (then known as 500 Startups), Coent Venture Partners and Capital Union Investments.
The company had picked up $2.7m in seed funding from 500 Startups, SXE Ventures, Coent Venture Partners and individual investors Danny Yeung and Joel Neoh in 2014.