Quantapore Lands $15.6M for Disruptive DNA Sequencing

Quantapore, a startup that claims to have developed inexpensive but ultra-effective DNA-sequencing technologies, has earned nearly $15.6 million in Series 3 funding, according to an announcement.

The Menlo Park, California-based company sold investors on its nanopore technology, which it says can “rapidly and accurately sequence DNA at one-tenth the cost of prevailing technologies.” The result: speedy long-read DNA sequencing without “laborious sample preparation,” which Quantapore says further cuts costs and expands its potential market.

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“Until now, we have operated in stealth mode while we were developing this revolutionary way to sequence DNA and RNA,” Quantapore CEO Martin Huber, Ph.D., said in a statement. “You’ll hear more from us in the coming months.”

Its new capital is slated to push its technology to beta, arming early adopters in industry and academia with the sequencing tool, according to Quantapore. The organization also plans to hire software and hardware professionals, in a bid to boost development efforts.

Northern Light Venture Capital led the founding round, with Tsingyuan Ventures and Sangel Venture Capital providing “major” investments. Baidu Ventures and Cloudstone VC also contributed to the campaign.

With the new investment, the company’s total amount of capital raised climbed to more than $50 million since its establishment in 2009, according to the startup tracker Crunchbase. Its second most recent injection came in 2016, following a $35 million round in May 2014, according to the website.

All that venture money could yield a big payoff for Quantapore and its backers. The genomic-testing market, after all, is worth $10 billion, with the potential to blossom in the near future.

As part of its investment, Northern Light Venture Capital has placed its founder and managing director, Feng Deng, MBA, on Quantapore’s board of directors. He will help guide the company through its evolution and that of the industry.

“As a long-time investor in genomics, I know well the opportunity and the need for new technologies to make the sequencing process easier and more cost-effective,” he said, adding that Quantapore could become a company that propels the entire industry forward.

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