WuXi NextCODE Completes $240 Million Financing

Rare Daily Staff

WuXi NextCODE, a contract genomics organization that is building a global platform for genomic data, said it completed a $240 million series B funding.

Sequoia China and including Temasek, Yunfeng Capital and 3W Partners led the round, which extended an initial B round of financing. Temasek, Yunfeng, and 3W also participated in the initial Series B round in May alongside Amgen Ventures and other existing investors.

Hannes Smarason, CEO of WuXi NextCODE, said the company’s vision is to serve as the “global platform for using genome data to advance global health.” The company, which is based in Shanghai; Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Reykjavik, Iceland, provides study design, sequencing, secondary analysis, storage, interpretation, scalable analytics, and artificial intelligence and deep learning.

“We have the unique expertise and now the resources to execute on this strategy,” Smarason said. “We plan to continue to push the leading edge of technology for digitizing, managing, and analyzing genomic big data, including through our pathbreaking AI, and to put it at the service of ever more enterprises, institutions, and individuals around the world.”

WuXi NextCODE will use the proceeds from the financing to accelerate the extension of its platform infrastructure and to bring new users and data onboard through its precision medicine and diagnostics partnerships. It will also use the funding for the commercialization of its consumer solutions for the China market.

WuXi NextCODE is involved in a number of partnerships centered on the clinical diagnosis or rare disease. This includes work with Genomics England as the Clinical Interpretation Partner on the 100,000 Genomes Project, the Fudan University-led Collaborative Innovation Center of Genetics and Development, and Boston Children’s Hospital, which treats thousands of pediatric patients with genetic disorders every year.

“Genomics is an intrinsically global big data opportunity of unprecedented scale,” said Neil Shen, founding and managing partner of Sequoia China, “and with breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, there will be explosive growth opportunities in the field of precision medicine.”

September 15, 2017