Gen9, Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.-based developer of scalable technologies for synthesizing genes, received a $21m strategic investment from Agilent Technologies (NYSE: A).
In conjunction with the investment, Agilent acquired an equity stake in the company and will join its board of directors.
Gen9 intends to use the capital for product development and commercial infrastructure expansion of its synthetic biology business.
Founded in 2009 by Joseph Jacobson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), George Church (Harvard Medical School) and Drew Endy (Stanford University) and led by Kevin Munnelly, president and CEO, Gen9 has a portfolio of gene synthesis technologies that enable the automated production of DNA constructs. As part of this new partnership, the company will incorporate Agilent’s Oligonucleotide Library Synthesis (OLS) technology into its manufacturing process to allow for the large-scale creation of pathway constructs and DNA libraries.
Gen9 is also backed by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, The Kraft Group, PBM Capital Group and a number of angel investors, including Scott A. Schoen and Weili Dai.
FinSMEs
24/04/2013