Cambridge-based company that has developed and is commercialising single cell analysis systems underpinned by its proprietary picodroplet technology, Sphere Fluidics has announced it has closed a $40 million (£30 million) investment round. The round was led by Sofinnova Partners (Paris, France) and Redmile Group (San Francisco, USA) co-investing on equal terms.

Cyto-Mine Single Cell analysis

The medtech startup will use the funding to enable the expansion of the company’s international sales activities in key markets and improving its support for customers. Furthermore, it will expand its product research and development programmes, including novel applications for its proprietary Cyto-Mine Single Cell Analysis System.

Clone verification gets easier

The Cyto-Mine is an automated cost-effective platform which integrates single cell screening, sorting, dispensing, imaging, and clone verification and has been purchased by an international customer base including global pharmaceutical companies, biotech, CDMOs, and leading research institutions.

The platform can process millions of samples per day, assessing and isolating rare or valuable cell variants or biological products, to simplify and improve throughput across antibody discovery, cell line development and single cell diagnostics. The funds raised will support ongoing commercialization, broadening the technology’s adoption into new, innovative research areas such as cell therapy, synthetic biology and genome editing, in addition to ongoing enhancements of the platform’s capabilities and performance. In conjunction with the financing, Sofinnova’s Tom Burt and Redmile Group’s Rob Faulkner will join the Board.

Antibody discovery and single cell diagnostics

Andrew Mackintosh, Chairman of Sphere Fluidics commented: “This is a transformational investment from two of the most respected specialist investment funds in the industry and a recognition of the untapped potential of the pioneering product and market development carried out by the company to date.”

Frank Craig, CEO, Sphere Fluidics, commented: “This funding round is not only testament to the potential of Sphere Fluidics’ single cell analysis technology, but also to the expertise of our team. The investment will underpin our growth strategy, enabling us to expand both our product range and our support to new and existing customers, globally.”

Tom Burt, Partner, Sofinnova Partners, commented: “We remain impressed by Cyto-Mine’s high-throughput, ease-of-use and accessible cost. In the growing markets of monoclonal antibody discovery, cell line development and cell therapy, we see a significant need for such an affordable and reliable single cell analysis system as Cyto-Mine, capable of performing multiple assays on tens of millions of individual cells per run.”

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