SomaLogic Receives $200M in New Investment

SomaLogic announced the closure of a 9-figure funding round yesterday.

A group of investors, led by Chinese genomics giant iCarbonX, injected $200 million into the company in a recent private equity round. The money, SomaLogic says, will go towards its ambitious goal of becoming “the world’s leading provider of precision digital health insights.”

Investment in proteomic and genomic analysis is booming. SomaLogic, which focuses entirely on proteins, has analyzed over 150,000 samples using its SOMAscan platform, and aims to do another 1 million by 2020. The technology analyzes thousands of unique proteins in every sample to search for disease biomarkers and insights.

The process generates huge proprietary datasets, which can be invaluable for understanding disease and developing treatments. In 2017, the technology was featured in at least a dozen published studies on topics ranging from the role of certain inflammatory cytokines to protein signatures for pulmonary tuberculosis.

"We believe SomaLogic's proteomics technology provides the basis for unique and differentiated insights into human health and disease, with broad implications for diagnosis and treatment,” Avinash Amin of Madryn Asset Management said in a statement. Avryn also contributed to the funding round, alongside Nan Fung Life Sciences and the aforementioned iCarbonX.

The company, founded in 1999, has now received close to $300 million in funding since a pair of Series A rounds in 2010. In July 2017, it disclosed a $161 million investment in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was apparently iCarbonX’s contribution to this recent funding round. In March 2016, it received $60 million in debt financing from Visium Healthcare Partners.

According to SomaLogic’s website, it boasts a “comprehensive [intellectual property] estate” with hundreds of foreign and domestic patents on its technology. In 2015, it opened its own Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA)-certified laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, where the company is based.

In its official announcement, the company credits the “growing power” of its technology, its ownership of massive protein datasets, and its overall strategy of generating insights with “[catching] the attention of leading investors in emerging digital health markets.”

"We are delighted that they recognize the huge potential of our technology to radically transform healthcare, and are joining us as valued partners to accelerate that goal," SomaLogic CEO Al Reynolds said in the statement.