IP Group plc (LON:IPO), the developer of intellectual property-based businesses, noted today that its portfolio company Oxford Nanopore Technologies Limited, has announced that it has raised an additional £48.4 million of new capital to support ongoing innovation and rapid growth. Oxford Nanopore is the company behind the only real-time DNA/RNA sequencer that can sequence any read length and is fully scalable from smaller portable formats to larger devices for population-scale sequencing.
The funding came from both new and existing shareholders in EMEA, US and Asia and adds to the £29.3 million of capital raised that was announced on 2 January.
Following completion of the funding round, IP Group holds an undiluted beneficial stake of 15.9%. The directors expect that the Group’s holding will be valued at £257.7 million, a reduction of £6.1 million, although will review the carrying value of Oxford Nanopore, as usual, as part of the Group’s Half-Yearly Results to 30 June 2020 in light of this funding round and all other relevant information.
Oxford Nanopore’s sequencing devices are being used in scientific research worldwide, and increasingly in regulated environments such as healthcare and food safety. The technology is being used extensively for epidemiology and research purposes in the current COVID-19 pandemic. The company also announced last week that it has a new category of COVID-19 test, LamPORE, in advanced development.
