An Emeryville-based startup has raised a large Series A round to create a new way of synthesizing DNA.
Ansa Biotechnologies Inc. raised $68 million this week to further develop its DNA synthesis technology to help biotech customers conduct research. The technology involves pairing a polymerase enzyme with a nucleotide, which results in a synthesizing method that is faster and more accurate than traditional methods, according to a news release.
The company will use the funding to expand its research-and-development and manufacturing facilities and hire more experts in biochemistry, engineering and operations, according to the release.
"Enzymatic DNA synthesis is rapidly becoming a commercial reality, and I believe we have the most advanced technology in terms of speed, length, and accuracy,” said Daniel Lin-Arlow, co-founder and CEO of Ansa, via the release. "We will be rapidly expanding our interdisciplinary team to build our synthesizers, scale up production of our reagents, and launch our service.”
Here's more Series A funding news from this week:
Ansa Biotechnologies Inc., Emeryville, $68 million: Northpond Ventures led the funding of this startup whose DNA synthesis technology is designed to help biotech customers do research. RA Capital, Blue Water Life Science Advisors, Altitude Life Science Ventures, Fiscus Ventures, PEAK6 Strategic Capital, Carbon Silicon Ventures, Codon Capital, Mubadala Capital, Humboldt Fund, Fifty Years and Horizons Ventures.
Kubit AI Inc., Oakland, $18 million: Insight Partners led the round for this provider of a customer and marketing analysis service. Shasta Ventures and TSVC also participated.
Grain Intelligence Inc., San Francisco, $16 million: Tiger Global Management led the funding for this provider of video conference recording, transcription, tagging and search software. Zoom, Slack Technologies, Unusual Ventures and Freestyle VC also invested.
Last9 Inc., San Francisco, $11 million: Sequoia Capital India led the round for this provider of a software reliability service. Better Capital also invested.
People Mesh Inc. (dba Mesh), San Jose, $11 million: RTP Global led the funding for this developer of software that helps companies track and manage their employees' performance.
