Molten Ventures, a leading venture capital firm investing in high growth technology businesses, has invested in synthetic biology company Evonetix.
Molten participated in the additional £20m ($24m) funding round extension, which was led by Foresite Capital and alongside early-stage investors including Morningside, DCVC, Cambridge Consultants, Civilization Ventures and Providence.
The latest fundraise brings its total series B funding to over $54m (£44m).
Nelly Markova, principal at Molten Ventures, said: “Molten has been a big supporter of Evonetix from a very early stage. We are delighted with the huge progress the company has made towards revolutionising the gene synthesis process and look forward to continuing our partnership.”
Colin McCracken, chief executive officer at Evonetix, added: “This substantial investment round demonstrates continued confidence in the progress of our technical development and its potential to revolutionise the accessibility of gene synthesis. Evonetix is in a very exciting phase, having recently opened our early access program. This investment will support us as we execute our commercial strategy to put DNA synthesis into the hands of users.”
Paul Beastall, chair of the board of directors at Evonetix, said: “We’re delighted to have secured additional funding from our existing investors in this oversubscribed round, testament not only to the promise of our novel approach to gene synthesis, but also the unrivalled expertise of our interdisciplinary team.”
Jim Tananbaum, founder and chief executive officer at Foresite Capital, commented: “We continue to be impressed by the Evonetix team and technology, and are excited to lead this round to accelerate their commercial strategy and make gene synthesis more accessible.”
The investment will enable the continued development of Evonetix’s semiconductor chips to commercial scale, and the extension of gene assembly capabilities for its unique binary assembly technology to deliver accurate, gene-length DNA in a benchtop instrument.
The platform has the potential to revolutionise the way this DNA is prepared and delivered to users in the rapidly growing field of synthetic biology, accelerating research in applications across pharma, biotech, food, agriculture and data storage.