Stanford-StartX Fund-backed microbial diagnostics and wellness product developer UBiome has raised $83m in series C funding.

UBiome, a US-based microbial genomics technology developer backed by the Stanford-StartX Fund, has raised $83m in series C funding from investors including Dentsu Ventures, the corporate venturing vehicle formed by marketing firm Dentsu. The round was led by venture capital fund OS Fund and included 8VC, Y Combinator and undisclosed new and existing investors. It increased the company’s funding to $105m altogether. Founded in 2012, UBiome is developing wellness products and diagnostics tests focusing on diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, cancer and metabolic disorders, by harnessing the body’s microbiome. The company uses precision metagenomic sequencing, machine learning and artificial intelligence, and oversees a human microbiome database with more than 250,000 samples that it aims to increase to 1 million next year. The round followed a $15.5m series B round closed by UBiome in 2016 that was led by 8VC and backed by the Stanford-StartX Fund, Slow Ventures and undisclosed additional investors, bringing its overall funding to $22m. The company had previously received $3m from Andreessen Horowitz alongside $1.5m from angel investors in 2014. Jessica Richman, UBiome’s co-founder and CEO, said: “This is the next step in the evolution of UBiome. We started with a simple wellness product to help people understand their microbiomes, expanded to clinical laboratory testing in 2015, and are now poised for expansion. “This financing allows us to expand our product portfolio, increase our focus on patent assets, and further raise our clinical profile, especially as we begin to focus on commercialisation of drug discovery and development of our patent assets.” – A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.  

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