RainDance Technologies grabbed a $16.5 million extension of its Series E financing, drawing new investors including GE Ventures into the mix. With the latest cash infusion, the Massachusetts maker of liquid biopsy gene-sequencing tools plans to accelerate commercial expansion and new product development.
Northgate Capital also joined the latest round, which included all previous investors. RainDance CEO Roopom Banerjee told Xconomy that his company was "not able to confirm or deny" whether executives expected to reach next for the public markets. But GE Ventures often chooses portfolio companies set for an IPO pathway, and Banerjee noted as much.
"GE Ventures does have a track record of investing in companies that certainly have created a lot of shareholder value in the public markets," he said in the Xconomy story.
RainDance is working hard to roll out its ThunderStorm next-generation targeted gene sequencing system and its RainDrop Digital PCR, which performs liquid biopsies to help detect circulating nucleic acids. Both are designed to enable diagnostics companies and researchers to do a better job detecting cancer, as well as inherited and infectious diseases.
RainDance nabbed its initial $20 million Series E equity round in April, a funding that brought on new investor Myriad Genetics ($MYGN), among others. In September, RainDance secured up to $35 million in debt financing through Capital Royalty Partners--all to help support the company's global commercial expansion.
To date, RainDance has attracted more than $100 million in financing from a number of other investors in a sizable syndicate: Mohr Davidow Ventures, Quaker Bioventures, Alloy Ventures, Acadia Woods Partners, Sectoral Asset Management and others.
GE Ventures and Myriad are particular coups as strategic investors, and Banerjee elaborated on that in his prepared remarks.
"Our success bringing in strategic investors such as GE Ventures and Myriad Genetics demonstrates we are a trusted platform partner to large customers in advancing the understanding, detecting and monitoring of cancer and other important diseases."
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