Portfolio company fundraising

RNS Number : 3964G

IP Group PLC

01 February 2010

 



PRESS RELEASE                                                                                            01 February 2010

IP Group - portfolio company Oxford Nanopore completes £17.4m fundraising

IP Group plc (LSE: IPO) ("IP Group" or the "Company" or "Group"), the intellectual property commercialisation company, is pleased to note that portfolio company Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd ("Oxford Nanopore"), a spin-out company from the University of Oxford, has successfully completed a £17.4 million fundraising. Oxford Nanopore is developing a new, electronic, single molecule analysis technology whose lead application is DNA sequencing.

Following completion of the financing round, IP Group's beneficial stake in Oxford Nanopore, is 24.6%, valued at £25.6 million, compared with 28.8% previously. The funds were raised from existing investors, including Illumina UK Ltd, Lansdowne Partners and Invesco Perpetual, and new undisclosed US institutional investors. The fundraising will result in a fair value gain to IP Group of £2.2 million.

Oxford Nanopore has previously raised £32 million since its formation in 2005.

The proceeds from this £17.4 million fundraising will be used for further development of Oxford Nanopore's proprietary platform technology, which uses real-time electronic measurement of current through small holes (nanopores) to identify molecules of interest as they pass through or near the nanopore. In addition to the development of common elements of the platform technology, funding will be directed to its lead project in DNA sequencing and new early work in protein analysis.

Oxford Nanopore's lead application is DNA sequencing. In contrast to current optical DNA sequencing systems, its nanopore method is electronic and label-free. This eliminates the need for fluorescent labels and optical hardware for a potential step-change in speed, cost and versatility.

For more information, please contact:

IP Group plc
Alan Aubrey, Chief Executive Officer	[phone]
Liz Vaughan-Adams, Communications	[phone] / 07979 853 802
Financial Dynamics	[phone]
Ben Atwell, John Dineen
Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd	[phone]
Dr Gordon Sanghera, CEO
Zoe McDougall, Communications

Notes for editors

About IP Group

IP Group is an intellectual property (IP) commercialisation company that specialises in commercialising university technology. Founded in 2001, IP Group listed on AIM in October 2003 and moved to the Official List in June 2006. It has made two acquisitions to date - Techtran, a company set up to commercialise university intellectual property under a long term contract with the University of Leeds, in 2005 and Top Technology Ventures, an investment adviser to early stage technology venture capital funds, in 2004.

IP Group has formed long-term partnerships with ten universities - the University of Oxford, King's College London, CNAP/University of York, the University of Leeds, the University of Bristol, the University of Surrey, the University of Southampton, Queen Mary (University of London), the University of Bath and the University of Glasgow.

The Company's portfolio is diverse with exposure to five main sectors - Energy & Renewables, Healthcare & Life Sciences: Non-therapeutics, Healthcare & Life Sciences: Therapeutics, IT & Communications and Chemicals & Materials. To date, eleven portfolio companies have listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange, one on PLUS Markets and there have been four trade sales.

For more information, please visit our website at www.ipgroupplc.com.

About Oxford Nanopore Technologies

Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd is developing a revolutionary technology for direct, electrical detection and analysis of single molecules. The platform is designed to offer market-disrupting benefits in a variety of applications.  

The Company's lead application is DNA sequencing, but the platform is also adaptable for protein analysis for diagnostics and drug development and identification of a range of other molecules for security & defence and environmental monitoring.  The technology is modular and highly scalable, driven by electronics rather than optics.

Oxford Nanopore's first generation of DNA sequencing technology uses a protein nanopore combined with a processive enzyme, multiplexed on a silicon chip. This elegant and scalable system has unique potential to transform the speed and cost of DNA sequencing. Future generations may interrogate single strands of DNA and may use 'solid-state' nanopores for further improvements in speed and cost.

The Company was originally founded on the science of Professor Hagan Bayley of the University of Oxford. The Company has since formed collaborations with world leading nanopore researchers and has a robust IP position for nanopore sensing.

For more information visit www.nanoporetech.com.

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