MedGenome, a genomics research and diagnostics company on Tuesday announced the completion of USD 30 million in Series C financing led by Sequoia India and Sofina s.a., with participation by Zodius Capital; Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder and former CEO of Infosys; and Lakshmi Narayanan, former CEO of Cognizant.
The Series C funding will accelerate development of the company's affordable diagnostics tests and expand the market penetration by increasing customer awareness on the importance of genetic tests. Additionally, the funding will also be used to broaden biomarker discovery programs.
"Precision medicine is the ultimate goal of clinicians and patients alike which can be enabled through extensive biomarker discovery. MedGenome has established leadership in genetic diagnostics for inherited diseases in India. We will now expand DNA based testing to cover infectious diseases like tuberculosis," said founder and chairman of MedGenome, Sam Santhosh.
MedGenome operates the largest Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) lab in South East Asia, and a CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited sequencing lab in Foster City, CA. The company's services are being leveraged by pharmaceutical and biotech companies across the globe.
MedGenome's diagnostics tests include many "firsts" for genetic diagnostics in India, including first liquid biopsy "OncoTrack" for monitoring cancer treatment, non-invasive prenatal screening test (NIPT) for pregnant women, carrier screening test for couples planning on a baby, and whole exome sequencing test for identifying mutations in rare diseases.
"Sequoia is excited to continue this partnership, and are committed to helping MedGenome strengthen its proposition to consumers and doctors in these markets and become a significant player globally in the arena of precision medicine through data from the currently underrepresented emerging markets including India," said managing director at Sequoia Capital India Advisors.
"Sofina is looking forward to this partnership to broaden the use of genomics-based diagnostics in the Indian healthcare sector, and tap into the value of Indian genetic data for research. We believe MedGenome's efforts will have a definitive impact on healthcare delivery in India and around the world," added Xiao-Tian Loi, Investment Manager at Sofina.
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