Congenica Completes Series B Financing Round With Investments From China-Based BGI Healthlink And Future Planet

CAMBRIDGE, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Congenica, a world leader in clinical genomics software for inherited diseases, today announced completion of its recently announced Series B funding round with additional investments from new strategically important investors BGI Genomics (BGI), a recognized global leader in genomics, Healthlink Capital (Healthlink), another well-established China-based life-science investor and Future Planet Capital, a global innovation fund.

“With three new investors joining the syndicate, we have formally closed what has been a highly successful financing round. We are now well capitalised and strongly positioned with sophisticated and supportive investors to execute on our international expansion plans and to continue innovating and developing our Sapientia platform.”

Alongside investing, BGI Genomics and UniteGen, Healthlink’s associated clinical diagnostic lab, have signed commercial contracts to use Congenica’s proprietary enterprise software, Sapientia™ to support their operations in China. These contracts represent Congenica’s first commercialisation in the territory and are consistent with Congenica’s international ambitions.

Tom Weaver, CEO at Congenica said: “This additional investment enhances our ability and commitment to deploy our software platform to international markets. Particularly China, where we have established a scalable partnering model to transform the clinical genetic testing market. Genomic technology will be central to the next generation healthcare system that is evolving rapidly in China and we are delighted to be working with strategic partners, both at the financial and commercial level, who are at the forefront of that change and committed to the benefits it will bring to patients.”

BGI Genomics, one of the world’s largest DNA sequencing service provider, will use Sapientia as a genome annotation and clinical decision support platform for in-house programs and through its BGI-online service, enabling the adoption of genome-based genetic diagnosis in routine diagnostic testing.

Ning Li, Chief Development Officer at BGI Genomics, said: “The unrivalled integrated end-to-end solution provided by BGI’s powerful BGI Online platform and Congenica’s authoritative Sapientia software offers multiple advantages for our partners.”

John Qiu, co-founder and President of Healthlink, said: “We are excited to invest in Congenica as the company pushes for international adoption and expansion, particularly to large population bases in the US and China. We believe that, as whole genome analysis becomes mainstream, Congenica’s sophisticated data interpretation and clinical reporting platform has the potential to serve as a foundational tool for next-generation rare genetic disease diagnosis and treatment in a number of pre-birth and pediatric care and research applications in China, particularly as birth rates rise following the relaxation of the one-child rule.”

Weike Mo, founder and CEO of UniteGen, said: “Partnering with Congenica, a highly-regarded global leader for genomic data analysis and clinical data integration, is a significant milestone for UniteGen. Sapientia incorporates all the features needed by Chinese healthcare practitioners to integrate genetic testing into clinical decisions. The automated reporting software solves a critical bottleneck for the genetic testing industry in China.”

Douglas Hansen-Luke, Executive Chairman at Future Planet Capital, commented: “We invest in companies that have the potential to not only be commercially successful but also have global impact. Congenica has the potential to accomplish both, building traction in China, the US and the Middle East where our investors are very actively engaged and wish to see direct benefit to their healthcare systems. Congenica’s technology is a game-changer by enabling doctors to diagnose the un-diagnosable.”

Andy Richards, Congenica’s Chairman, added: “With three new investors joining the syndicate, we have formally closed what has been a highly successful financing round. We are now well capitalised and strongly positioned with sophisticated and supportive investors to execute on our international expansion plans and to continue innovating and developing our Sapientia platform.”

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Background Information

About Congenica: Congenica is a world-leading developer of genome-based discovery and diagnostic technologies, and has developed the Sapientia genome analysis technology platform that facilitates clinical and R&D decision-making worldwide. A private company, Congenica is backed by leading life science investors including Cambridge Innovation Capital, Amadeus Capital Partners, Parkwalk Advisors, a member firm of IP Group plc, BGI Genomics, Healthlink Capital and Future Planet Capital. Find out more about Congenica at www.congenica.com or follow @Congenica.

About Sapientia™: Sapientia is a clinical genome analysis software platform that analyzes genome-scale DNA data to produce a comprehensive diagnostic report that can be linked to patients’ symptoms, supporting clinical decision-making about rare genetic disease. The platform is based on pioneering research from the UK’s Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, NHS clinicians and regional genetic testing laboratories, and its underlying technology has been validated by leading independent institutes and clinicians, including Genomics England Ltd. Sapientia is also being used in the advancement of personalised medicine by the global pharmaceutical industry to create disease registries, identify patient populations for clinical studies, and support the discovery of novel drug targets and biomarkers.

About BGI Genomics: BGI Genomics is a multinational genomics company with significant global operations and a wide variety of next generation sequencing (NGS) services including whole genome sequencing, exome sequencing and RNA sequencing. BGI Genomics is committed to providing genomics solutions to address the research, pharmaceutical and clinical markets while utilizing the power of NGS technology to improve human health and empower large-scale genomics research.

About BGI Online: BGI Online is a powerful and secure cloud platform for genomics data analysis. The platform exploits the powerful computing and unlimited storage capabilities of Amazon Web Services and Alibaba Cloud. BGI Online provides easier and more effective solutions to institutions from data storage, automated analysis, and data delivery to project collaboration and bioinformatics methods development.

About Healthlink Capital: Healthlink Capital is a China-based, entrepreneur-backed, healthcare-focused global venture investor. It typically invests in novel therapeutics and medtech companies across all clinical and developmental stages, many of whom seek to explore or expand into the Chinese market.

About UniteGen: UniteGen is an affiliated company of Guanhao Biotech focusing on clinical diagnostics with offices in Beijing, China.

About Future Planet Capital: Future Planet is a global innovation platform connecting the world’s largest investors to the best minds to address global challenges. It is an investor-led, co-investment platform giving the world’s largest investors scale-efficient access to innovation. Investing in top university clusters it aims to address and profitably impact the world’s biggest challenges.