GIC in £100m round for Oxford Nanopore

[Editors note: GIC is a partial owner of Unquote parent company Acuris]

China Construction Bank International, Hostplus and various existing investors also took part in the round. Following the deal, IP Group will hold an 18.3% stake in the gene-sequencing devices company valued at £274.1m, implying an equity valuation for Oxford Nanopore of £1.5bn.

The fresh capital will help fund the development of a new manufacturing facility in Oxford and enable the business to undertake a recruitment drive in its commercial team, and invest in research and development.

Oxford Nanopore is in the process of launching new products, including high-throughput modular sequencing device PromethION and small single-test sequencing device Flongle, which will expand its range to address all parts of the existing DNA sequencing market. It is also currently in the process of launching operations in Shanghai and San Francisco.

Previous funding
Oxford Nanopore (then known as Oxford NanoLabs) first received venture backing in March 2008, according to Unquote Data, when IP Group, Top Technology Ventures and a number of other institutions and private backers invested £10m in the company.

Lansdowne Partners, IP Group, Invesco Perpetual, trade backer Illumina and various US institutions then invested £17.4m in the business in February 2010.

The following year, the company received a further £25m in funding from Lansdowne, IP Group, Invesco, Redmile Group, Illumina and various institutional and private investors.

Lansdowne, IP Group, Invesco, Redmile and Illumina then acquired a minority stake in Oxford Nanopore for £31.4m in May 2012.

Most recently, the business raised £100m in December 2016, with new investors GT Healthcare Capital Partners and Woodford Investment Management taking part alongside other existing backers.

Company
Founded in 2005 and dual-headquartered in Oxford and Cambridge, Oxford Nanopore is a biotechnology company that develops gene-sequencing machines. It currently distributes its products to 70 countries and has a commercial presence in the US, China, Japan, France, and Germany.

According to publicly available documents, the company generated a turnover of £4.5m in 2016 and generated a loss in all previous financial years as it was in its research and development stage.

People
GIC – Bryan Yeo (chief investment officer of public equities).
IP Group – Alan Aubrey (CEO).
Oxford Nanopore – Gordon Sanghera (CEO).

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