Exploring the Global Genomics Startups Landscape

The global genomics market size is expected to reach $27.61B by 2025 at a CAGR of 8.6%. Genomics companies in the U.S. received $2.52B in venture capital funding in 2017, up 142% from $1.04B in 2016. The majority of the $2.52B in funding, roughly $1.7B, went toward companies focused on disease diagnosis. The second most-funded genomics sector was biotechnology at $550M.

The advancement in genomics analysis has facilitated a better understanding of diseases, their mechanisms and enables clinicians and researchers to take an evidence-based decision. The cost of genomic sequencing has drastically reduced enabling the whole genome sequencing at a very less price. The sequencing generated data combined with diagnostics is playing a critical role in personalized precision medicine.

We used our proprietary search engine BioHubble to identify innovative genomic startups and VC firms investing in them, across the world and also learned more about their management, financing and IP.

Source : Dribbble.com

RealTime Genomics (Hamilton, New Zealand) is the analytics engine of genomics, transitioning clinicians, researchers and applied scientists from data analysts into practitioners of timely, accurate biology. It has developed a patented pattern search technology that enables accurate mapping and alignment of NGS data with a unique combination of speed and sensitivity.

54Gene (Lagos, Nigeria) is an African genomics company building the world’s largest pan-African biobank. 54gene is partnering with hospitals and research institutions in African countries; and with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to address the challenge of limited diverse genomics data, which may hold the key to medical discoveries and new healthcare solutions. Investors include Y Combinator, Fifty Years Ventures, Better Ventures, and KdT Ventures.

PetaGene (Cambridge, UK) decreases the size of genomic data, reducing storage costs and data transfer times by between 60% and 90% without compromising data quality. It is a spinoff from the University of Cambridge’s “Project PetaGene”, a collaboration with the Stegle Group at EMBL-EBI and initially funded by London’s Entrepreneur First incubator.

Sophia Genetics (Lausanne, Switzerland) has developed a SOPHiA Set-Up Program which is designed to support the implementation of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS)-based testing for genetic diseases. The Set-Up Program is an efficient and reliable process that establishes and demonstrates the analytical performance of a test prior to adoption.

Sequentia Bio (Barcelona, Spain) is a bioinformatics company that offers services and technologies that help transform genomic data into knowledge in academic research, plant and animal breeding and biomedicine.

Nebula Genomics (San Francisco/Boston, USA) is a human genome sequencing and health big data company on a mission to usher in the era of genomic sequencing by building a large and trusted genomic and health data marketplace for consumers, researchers and the medical community. It raised $4.3M in seed financing in 2018 with participation from Khosla Ventures, Arch Venture Partners, Fenbushi Capital, Mayfield, F-Prime Capital Partners, Great Point Ventures, Windham Venture Partners, Hemi Ventures, Mirae Asset, Hikma Ventures and Heartbeat Labs.

PhenoTips (Toronto, Canada) is a software company that specializes in workflows for genomic medicine. It is a spin-off from a joint research project between computer scientists at the University of Toronto and geneticists at SickKids hospital set out to build a database linking phenotypes (physical descriptions) to genotypes (genetic characteristics).