- General
- November 11, 2020
- 5 minutes read
Tencent Backs Congenica
Martin Lau, President, Tencent. Photo credit: World Economic Forum, licensed under Creative Commons Chinese tech giant Tencent has co-led…
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| Martin Lau, President, Tencent.
Photo credit: World Economic Forum, licensed under Creative Commons
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Chinese tech giant Tencent has co-led a £39 million ($50 million) Series C round for Congenica, a British genomic analysis startup. The company co-led the round along with British financial services firm Legal & General, with participation from other investors including Puhua Capital, IDO Investments, Xeraya, and Cambridge Innovation Capital.
With the new round, Congenica has now raised over £63 million ($84 million) in outside financing.
Congenica was born out of joint research from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, a well-known genomics and genetics research institute in the UK, and the UK National Health Service (NHS). The company provides genomic analysis for consumers and also uses the data harnessed from its analysis to support medical research for laboratories, academic medical centers, and pharmaceutical companies.
Congenica has a customer network spanning 18 countries and will make use of its new funding to further expand internationally. Furthermore, Congenica plans to integrate its platform with existing electronic health systems with the aim of easy access to healthcare guided by genomic information for its customers.
Congenica is one out of several well-known biotech companies from the UK. Another such company, Oxford Nanopore, recently raised $110 million in funding at a valuation of $2.2 billion.
Tencent, the co-leader of Congenica’s new round is a prolific investor in technology and biotech companies across the globe. Its investment in Congenica comes on the heels of other investments from the tech giant such as Zego, a Chinese real-time communications platform, and VSPN, a Chinese esports company.
