Illumina Ventures, a leading genomics and precision health venture firm, today announced plans to launch Illumina® Ventures Labs. Building on the foundation of the Illumina Accelerator program, Illumina Ventures Labs will operate and provide access to fully equipped genomics labs in the US and the UK, mentorship, and seed financing to attract a broad range of genomics related start-ups. Illumina, Inc. will provide the start-ups with technical guidance from its subject matter experts and will provide Illumina Ventures Labs access to its next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms, in lieu of operating its Accelerator program.
“This expansion of our relationship with Illumina is a continuation of Illumina Ventures’ strategy to pursue earlier stage investing,” said Nick Naclerio, Founding Partner of Illumina Ventures. “The program will give early-stage companies a jump-start and accelerate timelines to the next value inflection point while providing additional investment opportunities for our fund.”
Since 2016, Illumina Ventures has invested in over 30 start-ups in the US and Europe, making it one of the leading investors in life science tools, clinical diagnostics, and genomics-enabled therapeutic platforms. While Illumina is an anchor limited partner in the fund, the majority of the $560M raised by the independently managed firm comes from other limited partners.
“Illumina’s Accelerator program for seed stage companies helped launch 74 companies and attracted over $1.2B in third party investments over 15 funding cycles,” said Alex Aravanis, CTO of Illumina. “Based on this legacy, we believe the time is right to evolve the Accelerator program by partnering with Illumina Ventures, in order to create an even bigger impact on the genomics start-up industry. This partnership combines the strengths of both organizations, allowing our scientists to work closely with companies pioneering potential new applications of our genomics tools while leaving the investment decisions to independent venture investors who will be able to directly fund the participants.”
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