Oxford, UK-based Genomics has raised £35 million in a funding round. Reportedly, the investment was led by F-Prime Capital and Foresight Partners (that backed Hackajob), which were joined by Infinity Investment Partners and MassMutual (backed Zluri and HarfangLab).
Genomics plans to use the funds to develop its risk estimation technology to prevent common diseases and cancers. The investment will also be used to support the expansion of its workforce as the company aims to achieve profit. The investment follows the $30 million round it founded in 2021.
Develops precision healthcare tools
Genomics was founded by four academics from the University of Oxford, including Professor Peter Donnelly, Professor Gil McVean, Dr Gerton Lunter, and Dr Chris Spencer. The company has created proprietary algorithms and databases to link small variations of genomes across large datasets to generate risk assessments for health issues across entire populations.
The company uses large-scale genetic information to develop precision healthcare tools, working within the new area of genomic prevention. Genomic prevention allows for personalised estimates of risk for common diseases, ahead of actual disease manifestation. This enables targeted interventions and tailored screening to either prevent disease entirely or to catch it early when outcomes remain favourable.
The Oxford University spinout claims its method of polygenic testing, an analysis of disease risk stemming from a person’s genes provides insights to people who would otherwise be missed by the system.
It has a team of over 100 people, including over 50% women with PhDs, and offices in the UK and the US.
“Our vision is that in 10 to 15 years, genetic information will be ubiquitous in healthcare systems,” said Genomics CEO Sir Peter Donnelly. “In a couple of years, there’ll be millions of people in the UK who have personalised risk information based on our tools. We’ve built a unique resource inside the company, effectively by sucking in 10,000s of different data from 10,000s of different research studies.”
