China's Precision Medicine Startup Geneseeq Closes $114M Series D Round

According to dealstreetasia.com, Geneseeq Technology Inc. （"Geneseeq"）, a Chinese company that develops next-generation sequencing (NGS) for precision medicine, has closed 800 million yuan (US$114 million) in a Series D round of financing led by state-owned China Reform Holdings Corporation ("CRHC").

China-based biomedical venture capital firm Lilly Asia Ventures, SoftBank China Venture Capital ("SBCVC"), the China-focused investment arm of Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group, and other investors also participated in the new round.

Geneseeq was created in 2008 in Toronto, Canada to use NGS technologies in guiding precision medicine for cancer treatment.

Incorporated in China in 2013 and headquartered in the country's eastern city of Nanjing, Geneseeq translates complex genomic information into decision-making tools for physicians, covering lung cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, breast cancer & gynaecological cancer, prostate cancer & urological tumour, among others.

The dual-headquartered firm, with over 700 employees, owns 100,000 square feet of a clinical testing centre and diagnostic kit manufacture facility, as well as a new R&D centre currently under construction, shows the company website.

Prior to the Series D round, Geneseeq raised hundreds of millions of yuan in a Series C round from investors including Hungary-based private equity fund Innovation Capital and Chinese private equity firm Cowin Capital in July 2017.

CRHC is a Chinese state-owned asset manager. The company has set up Guoxin Guotong Fund, State-Owned Enterprise Operating Fund, Guoxin Jianxin Fund, Shuangbai Fund and Science & Technology Innovation Fund, with a total amount over 700 billion yuan.

Approved by the State Council, China Huaxing Group Corporation, China Printing Group (later renamed the Chinese Cultural Industry Development Corporation) has included CRHC in 2011, 2012, by the Chinese to their new country perform the function.

Lilly Asian Ventures makes venture capital investments in Asia for Eli Lilly and Company, a global innovation-driven pharmaceutical company. The company mainly invests in promising life science companies with strong management teams and innovative technology and/or business models. Its initial focus is primarily on opportunities in China, although it will take the investments in the east and south Asia into account.