Series A18 September 2023

Broken String Biosciences secures £12m Series A funding from Illumina Ventures and Mérieux Equity Partners to scale its DNA mapping platform.

The financing was co-led by Illumina Ventures and Mérieux Equity Partners to support the development and commercialisation of the company gene editing safety technology.

£12.0MSeries A

Broken String Biosciences is a genomics company building a proprietary platform to map DNA breaks and enhance the safety of cell and gene therapies. Headquartered in Cambridge, the firm works to accelerate the clinical development of gene editing programmes.

Broken String Biosciences has secured £12m in a Series A funding round co-led by Illumina Ventures and Mérieux Equity Partners. The financing also saw participation from HERAN Partners, alongside existing backers Tencent and Dieter von Holtzbrinck Ventures. The capital will be directed towards scaling the company technology and expanding its commercial footprint.

The Cambridge-based genomics business will use the proceeds to evolve its INDUCE-seq platform into a platform as a service offering. Funds will additionally support broadening the company go-to-market strategy, growing its UK team at the Wellcome Genome Campus, and establishing a new office in the United States.

From the founder

"Our vision is a future where cell and gene therapies are safer, more efficient, and affordable for patients. Operating at the intersection of biology, bioinformatics and data science, our INDUCE-seq platform offers an unbiased, end-to-end solution that expedites the measurement and assessment of off-target gene editing during therapeutic development. This provides essential information required to progress therapeutic programs that leverage gene editing and mitigate potential risks that can result in later-stage clinical failures. By developing a deployable PaaS offering, we have the opportunity to provide the cell and gene therapy community with this much-needed solution and achieve rapid market growth."

Felix Dobbs

Chief Executive Officer at Broken String Biosciences

Investor perspective

"The clinical progression of cell and gene therapies is held back by off-target safety concerns – we recognize the power of Broken String Biosciences’ technology to drive advances in safer genome editing, genome biology and genetic toxicology, and optimize drug development programs. The platform has the potential to become the gold-standard solution for measuring off-target gene editing."

Arnaud Autret

Principal, Illumina Ventures