54gene secures $15 million Series A funding round to scale up

Nigeria’s genomics research, services, and development startup 54gene has closed a Series A financing round of US$15 million led by Adjuvant Capital.

According to Adjuvant, the Proceeds will help the company scale operations and accelerate discovery capabilities in the health sector.

It revealed that the fund will also be used to finance expansion to include the study of infectious disease and sexual and reproductive health conditions endemic in Africa.

MarketForces recalls that the startup raised a US$4.5 million seed round last year.

Adjuvant Capital, a life sciences fund is backed by the International Finance Corporation, Novartis, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in the deal.

54gene currently has a network of 17 hospitals across Nigeria to enroll patients in its studies and 300 researchers, clinicians and geneticists across the continent, Adjuvant shows on its website.

The round included participation from Raba Capital, V8 Capital, and Ingressive Capital.

Also, a follow-on investment from Y-Combinator, Better Ventures, Fifty Years, KdT Ventures, Aera VC and Pioneer Fund.

As part of its next stage of growth, the company will further explore partnerships and opportunities for co-development of drug targets and therapeutics.

It would explore partnership arrangement with pharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostic companies for clinical programmes in Africa.

Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong, the founder and Chief Executive Officer at 54gene said this new partnership marks a significant evolution in the growth of our company.

“In the coming months we will be focusing on building a genomic resource that we hope will add significantly to global health, while also translating to the health benefits of patients in Africa,” he added.

Dr. Ene-Obong explained that 54gene will be expanding collaborations in Africa with both public and private stakeholders and investing in setting up a state-of-the-art research lab with high-throughput genetic processing and BSL 3 capabilities in Nigeria.

Ensuring that we build some of our innovative pipelines on the African continent, he added.

Jenny Yip, Managing Partner of Adjuvant Capital, said there was “enormous potential” in expanding the reach of global drug and vaccine discovery by including more diverse populations in research efforts.

“We were impressed by 54gene’s commitment to building a world-class network of African clinicians and geneticists and are excited to work with them as they scale and seek to drive meaningful improvements in global public health,” she said.

54gene secures $15 million Series A funding round to scale up