Oxford spin-out Nanopore announces £25M fundraising

IP Group plc, the developer of intellectual property based businesses, is pleased to note that portfolio company Oxford Nanopore Technologies Limited, a spin-out company from the University of Oxford, has raised £25 million in new funding. Oxford Nanopore is developing nanopore technology for the direct, electronic analysis of single molecules.

Following completion of the financing round, IP Group’s 21.5% beneficial stake in Oxford Nanopore is valued at £33.4 million. The round was funded by existing and new institutional and individual investors from the US and UK, including Lansdowne Partners, IP Group, Invesco Perpetual, Redmile Group, Illumina and other undisclosed investors. The fundraising will result in an unrealised fair value gain to IP Group of £6.4 million. Oxford Nanopore has previously raised £49 million since its formation in 2005.

The funds will support further development, external technology validation and production capabilities for Oxford Nanopore’s proprietary technology for molecular analysis applications that include DNA sequencing and protein analysis.  In addition to the development of techniques using biological nanopores, Oxford Nanopore has also strengthened existing projects and collaborations in the development of solid-state nanopores.

The Oxford Nanopore platform technology, GridION^TM, consists of a scalable modular instrument and self-contained consumable cartridge. GridION is adaptable for the analysis of different types of molecules including DNA and proteins by changing the types of nanopore included in the cartridge.

Oxford Nanopore’s technology integrates techniques from disciplines that include nanopore science, electronics, high-speed data processing, fluidics and software development. Oxford Nanopore has built broad expertise and an intellectual property estate of more than 250 patents and patent applications in nanopore sensing technology, through a combination of in-house discoveries and a network of academic collaborations.  New funds will also be used to support Oxford Nanopore’s leadership position in current and future nanopore science.  For example the Oxford Nanopore recently extended various academic partnerships, including an agreement with Harvard University that added graphene to an existing project in solid-state nanopore technology.