Elegen Raises $35 Million in Series B to Accelerate Expansion into Clinical Manufacturing
May 14 2024 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
Triatomic Capital leads round, joined by
strategic investors GSK and Aldevron co-founder
Elegen, the leader in next-generation DNA synthesis and
production, today announced a Series B financing of $35 million led
by Triatomic Capital. Also joining the round are strategic
investors GSK, which recently entered a collaboration and licensing
agreement with Elegen to use their proprietary cell-free DNA
manufacturing technology in developing GSK’s vaccines and
medicines, and John Ballantyne, co-founder of Aldevron. Elegen’s
current investors, including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z Bio +
Health), KdT Ventures, 8VC, Digitalis Ventures, ACVC Partners, Alix
Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures and Agilent Technologies, also
participated.
The new funds will accelerate the extension of the company’s
rapidly growing ENFINIA™ DNA product line across clinical workflows
providing turnkey production of GMP-compliant DNA for clinical
development of genetic medicines. “The age of genetic medicines is
here, but these powerful modalities require innovative new
manufacturing approaches to supply the critical input DNA material
for rapid discovery, development and then wide-scale production,”
said Matthew Hill, Ph.D., Elegen Founder and CEO. “With this
investment, we will continue to push the boundaries of DNA
synthesis to accelerate upstream discovery and enable rapid and
streamlined deployment of new clinical modalities.”
Elegen differentiates itself through its ability to commercially
manufacture highly accurate DNA with more length, complexity and
speed than other providers who rely on traditional cell-based
cloning, which has been the standard means of generating DNA for
more than 50 years. Elegen’s platform enables a step-function
increase in throughput and scalability while reducing synthesis
limitations, failures, cell-based contamination and days to weeks
of additional hands-on time for customers.
“Elegen is poised to unlock innovation in genetic medicine with
a rapid, turnkey supply of GMP-compliant DNA for research and
clinical programs,” said Peter Zhou, General Partner of Triatomic
Capital, who will be joining Elegen’s board. “Their technology
platform is innovative and differentiated from other DNA synthesis
providers, and we look forward to supporting Elegen’s success
alongside this strong group of investors and seasoned leadership
team.”
Elegen’s technology stack continues to evolve, offering
industry-leading, flexible solutions across the DNA synthesis
supply chain. After launching ENFINIA DNA in Q1 2023, the company
began offering options for higher synthesis scale in early Q4 2023.
In March of this year, Elegen commercialized a service for the
rapid synthesis of highly complex sequences. The latest financing
round further supports the company’s mission to develop innovative
cell-free DNA manufacturing solutions, including IVT-ready DNA,
plasmid DNA and clinical-grade DNA production.
"We are proud to continue our support of Elegen and their
mission to disrupt the non-scalable status quo of clinical DNA
manufacturing," said Cain McClary, Founder and Managing Partner of
KdT Ventures. "Across our portfolio and the ecosystem at large,
companies are underserved by current DNA synthesis offerings. We
recognize the tremendous potential for their next-gen DNA
manufacturing in genetic medicine and individualized patient
therapy.”
“Elegen’s innovative approach to DNA manufacturing is critical
to accelerating the pace of innovation, discovery and development
in areas ranging from mRNA vaccines to cell and gene therapies to
CRISPR gene editing,” said Vijay Pande, Ph.D., founding general
partner, a16z Bio + Health. “We believe the differentiation and
scalability of Elegen’s platform will be transformative in
healthcare applications and beyond.”
About Elegen
Elegen brings unique insights and technical innovation to create
high-quality synthetic DNA faster, catalyzing the next revolution
in the life sciences. The company is led by seasoned leaders with
decades of experience in developing novel and scalable approaches
in molecular biology, chemistry and microfluidics. Elegen uses a
proprietary microfluidics approach to build longer, higher-quality
DNA on a faster timeline for agricultural, chemical, healthcare and
pharma industries. Founded in 2017, Elegen is privately held and
based in the San Francisco Bay Area. For more information, visit
elegenbio.com, find us on LinkedIn or follow us on Twitter
@ElegenBio.
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ELEGEN CONTACT
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