Consortium invest £16.9m in Atlas Genetics

New investors also participating in the series-B financing round are Life Science Partners, BB Biotech Ventures, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation as well as existing investors. The funding round follows a £1m seed round that was split in two, half provided in October 2005 and the other half provided by YFM Equity Partners and GEIF Ventures in July 2006. A £2m round was closed in 2007, with two YFM managed funds contributing. In 2009 a small interim investment was made followed by a £1.5m round in February 2011 supported by Consort Medical plc and other investors.

The latest investment was initiated after Atlas Genetics made contact with a business unit of Novartis, which then built a syndicate of investors. Funding will be drawn down over three years and will support the launch of the company's main product Velox. It will also be used to finance the development of new products.

Company
Atlas Genetics Ltd was established in 2005 and develops point-of-care diagnostic tests for infectious diseases such as Chlamydia and gonorrhoea. The company's head office is based in Bristol and a laboratory facility is located in Trowbridge.

The company's product is expected to be commercialised towards the end of 2012.

People
Florent Gros, Joachim Rothe and Martin Münchbach worked on the deal for Novartis Venture, LSP and BB Biotech Ventures respectively.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• UK / Ireland
• Early-stage
• Healthcare
• Life Science Partners