Wuxi NextCode, a US-based genomics services provider backed by pharmaceutical firm Amgen, closed a $200m series C round yesterday led by Irish sovereign wealth fund Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF).
ISIF committed $70m to the round and was joined by Singaporean government-owned investment firm Temasek, as well as Yunfeng Capital and Sequoia Capital.
Founded as NextCode Health in 2013, Wuxi NextCode has developed a contract genomics platform offering features such as sequencing, secondary analysis, storage, interpretation and scalable analytics. It was acquired by pharmaceutical firm Wuxi AppTec in 2015.
The series C round will fund an acquisition – expected to reach a value of up to $400m – of Genomics Medicine Ireland (GMI), an Ireland-based genomics platform backed by GV, the early-stage corporate venturing arm of technology group Alphabet.
GMI will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wuxi NextCode. It will benefit from a $225m upfront investment to fund a whole genome sequencing program, targeting participation of 400,000 volunteers – one in ten Irish citizens – increasing to $400m in line with milestones.
The company will also create an International Centre for Advanced Life Sciences that will act as a global hub to attract local and overseas corporations across the entire healthcare spectrum, including related fields such as cloud computing.
GMI had previously secured more than $50m in reported funding, most recently raising $40m in series A funding from GV as well as ISIF, Arch Venture Partners and Polaris Partners in 2016. GV, Arch, Polaris and Maveron had also contributed to a funding round of undisclosed size in 2015.
Wuxi NextCode has also entered early discussions to launch a genomics accelerator in Ireland.
In September 2017, Wuxi NextCode completed a $240m series B round following a $165m extension led by Sequoia, with participation from Temasek, Yunfeng and 3W Partners.
Temasek and Yunfeng had co-led an initial $75m tranche in May 2017 with participation from Amgen’s corporate venturing division Amgen Ventures.
The company had earlier obtained $15m in series A capital from Polaris and Arch in 2013.
