New York Genome Center-founded Gencove has added $3m from investors including Alexandria Venture Investments to bring its genomics testing kit to new markets.
Gencove, a US-based genome sequencing platform developer spun out of biomedical research facility New York Genome Center, secured $3m on Wednesday in a round featuring Alexandria Venture Investments.
The deal, led by venture firm Spero Ventures, also featured Third Kind Venture Capital, Version One Ventures and Burst Capital. Alexandria Real Estate Equities is the strategic VC division of life sciences real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities.
Founded in 2016, Gencove develops cost-effective genome sequencing technologies priced as low as $50 for agricultural, consumer and clinical applications among others.
The company’s service deploys what is known as low-pass genome sequencing, which applies imputation algorithms to measurements of random sites in the genome to offer greater accuracy than the genotyping arrays broadly used for genomics research at present.
Gencove was co-founded by chief executive Joe Pickrell and chief technology officer Tomaz Berisa, both of whom previously worked for New York Genome Center, in statistical genetics and data science respectively.
The spinout is aiming to expand into additional markets, capitalising on the affordability of its product to target industries where genomics testing so far has limited penetration.
Gencove had already raised $1m in a July 2017 round backed by Third Kind Venture Capital, Refactor Capital, Version One Ventures and SV Angel, as well as angel investors Kresimir Penavic and Balaji Srinivasan.
