Oxford Nanopore Completes £17.4m Fundraising

IP Group Plc the intellectual property commercialisation company, is pleased to note that portfolio company Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd a spin-out company from the University of Oxford, has successfully completed a £17.4 million fundraising. Oxford Nanopore is developing a new, electronic, single molecule analysis technology whose lead application is DNA sequencing.

Following completion of the financing round, IP Group’s beneficial stake in Oxford Nanopore, is 24.6%, valued at £25.6 million, compared with 28.8% previously. The funds were raised from existing investors, including Illumina UK Ltd, Lansdowne Partners and Invesco Perpetual, and new undisclosed US institutional investors. The fundraising will result in a fair value gain to IP Group of £2.2 million.

Oxford Nanopore has previously raised £32 million since its formation in 2005. The proceeds from this £17.4 million fundraising will be used for further development of Oxford Nanopore’s proprietary platform technology, which uses real-time electronic measurement of current through small holes (nanopores) to identify molecules of interest as they pass through or near the nanopore. In addition to the development of common elements of the platform technology, funding will be directed to its lead project in DNA sequencing and new early work in protein analysis.