UCSF spinout Mission Bio has pushed its overall funding to more than $120m following a series C round led by Novo Growth.

Mission Bio, a US-based DNA analysis technology spinout of University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), has raised $70m in a series C round led by pharmaceutical firm Novo’s Novo Growth unit. Agilent Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of laboratory equipment and diagnostics services provider Agilent Technologies, also took part in the round, as did Cota Capital, Mayfield Fund and Soleus Capital. The round took the company’s total funding to more than $120m, it said, and Robert Ghenchev, head of Novo Growth, has joined its board of directors. Founded in 2014, Mission Bio has created a system called Tapestri which enables researchers and medical professionals to analyse single-cell RNA sequencing data to help develop precision medicines. The spinout leverages genomics technology from UCSF’s Abate Lab. The series C cash will be used to improve the Tapestri platform and help Mission Bio carry out clinical studies for cell and gene-based cancer therapies. Agilent Technologies, Cota Capital and Mayfield Fund participated in Mission Bio’s $30m series B round in late 2018, investing alongside Lam Research Capital, an investment vehicle for chipmaker Lam Research. Mission Bio had completed a $10m series A round from Stanford University’s Stanford-StartX Fund, Keiretsu Forum, Life Science Angels and Tech Coast Angels the year before. Ghenchev said: “We are impressed with Mission Bio’s innate approach to data integration at the single-cell level and are excited to contribute more than capital by activating our broad life science network to support their mission to greatly impact the success and economics of precision therapy development.” – A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.

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Edison Fu

Edison Fu is a reporter and Asia liaison at Global Corporate Venturing.