23andMe, Inc., a Mountain View, CA-based personal genetics company, raised $115m in Series E financing.
The round was led by Fidelity Management & Research Company with participation from new investors Casdin Capital, WuXi Healthcare Ventures and Xfund, as well as existing investors Illumina (ILMN), New Enterprise Associates, MPM Capital, and Google Ventures.
The company intends to use the funds for strategic infrastructure including new laboratory space for therapeutic research, a next generation sequencing laboratory as well as other investments in long-term growth.
Founded in 2006 and led by Andy Page, president, and Dr. Richard Scheller, chief science officer, 23andMe is a web-based service that allows people to read and understand their DNA by providing a saliva sample using an at-home kit.
The company, which has been the first company to receive market authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a direct-to-consumer genetic test, has executed several pharmaceutical and academic collaborations for disease related research, further validating the capabilities of its database of genetic and phenotypic information and re-contactability of patient cohorts.
23andMe, which has more than one million customers worldwide, expects to launch a new user experience that includes carrier status reports in the US, as well as enhanced tools and functionality by the end of the year.
FinSMEs
14/10/2015