Parkwalk is a growth EIS fund manager that backs disruptive technologies emerging from the UK's leading universities and research institutions.
Cambridge Enterprise led the seed financing, which includes backing from Parkwalk, New Grounds, and R42 Group.
"Many researchers would like to get molecular binding data more conveniently and more frequently to guide them through a drug development project. HexagonFab aims to address this need with the Bolt. This investment will enable us to bring our game-changing product to the market. We look forward to the months ahead working closely with our lead customers,"
The financing round drew participation from Legal & General, Tencent, and QVentures to support genomics software development.
"We are thrilled to be supporting Congenica in developing their world-leading technology to deliver life-changing answers. At QVentures, we strive to support cutting-edge technology companies that really change how an industry operates and we believe David and his team are doing just that. We are pleased that QVentures’ Family Offices and UHNWI investors could join us on that journey."
The financing round was co-led by Tencent and Legal & General to support international expansion and product development.
"Genomic medicine is revolutionising healthcare, transforming outcomes for patients by providing clinicians with fast, accurate and early diagnoses and the information needed to provide life-changing answers for their patients, improving wellbeing and disease management. This new funding will allow us to build on our established foundation in rare disease and bring the power of our platform to new indications and new markets. We welcome our new investors to Congenica and are grateful to our existing investors for their continued support."
Parkwalk led the follow-on investment round to support the market launch of the company's mental health assessment tool.
"Diagnosing mental health issues correctly in primary care can be difficult, due to time constraints and the fact that mental health conditions can be masked by physical symptoms. Delays in diagnosing—or misdiagnosis—mean that it can take several years for an individual with depression to be correctly diagnosed. For bi-polar disorder the average delay is six to eight years. The consequence of this is that many people suffer unnecessarily from debilitating symptoms that could be successfully treated. It is clear that faster and earlier diagnosis followed by the most appropriate treatment will improve the quality of life of affected individuals, while at the same time relieving pressure on the healthcare system"
The funding round was led by nChain and Cambridge Innovation Capital.
"Businesses have realised that advanced analytics and rapid innovation is the key to building competitive advantage in a data-driven world, so where billion row queries that took hours were once acceptable, the market now demands trillions of rows and speed-of-thought results. Aside from performance and scale, database technology needs to be built with the future of the connected world in mind – providing flexibility and cost predictability, even as the demands for big data continues to grow."
