Evonetix–Molten Ventures: investment, 202302 financing round Series B extension totalling £20m incl existing + co-investor Molten Ventures

	Period	2023-02-07
	Money taker	Evonetix Ltd.
	Money source	Molten Ventures plc
	Group	Molten Ventures (Group)
	Product	venture capital
	Index term	Evonetix–SEVERAL: investment, 202302 financing round Series B extension £20m bringing total Series B to £43m
	Person	Markova, Nelly (Molten Ventures 202302 Principal)

Evonetix Ltd.. (2/7/23). "Press Release: Evonetix Closes $24 Million USD (£20 Million) Financing. Oversubscribed Round Led by Foresite Capital". Cambridge.

> Funding will enable development of DNA synthesis chip technology to commercial scale

EVONETIX LTD (‘Evonetix’), the synthetic biology company bringing semiconductor technology to DNA synthesis, today announced it has completed a USD $24 million financing round, extending its total series B funding to over USD $54 million (circa GB £44 million). This fundraise was led by existing investor Foresite Capital, with Molten Ventures, Morningside, DCVC, Cambridge Consultants, Civilization Ventures and Providence also participating in the round.

The investment will enable the continued development of Evonetix’s semiconductor chips to commercial scale, and the extension of gene assembly capabilities for its unique binary assembly technology to deliver accurate, gene-length DNA in a benchtop instrument. The platform has the potential to revolutionise the way this DNA is prepared and delivered to users in the rapidly growing field of synthetic biology, accelerating research in applications across pharma, biotech, food, agriculture, and data storage.

Colin McCracken, Chief Executive Officer at Evonetix, commented: “This substantial investment round demonstrates continued confidence in the progress of our technical development and its potential to revolutionise the accessibility of gene synthesis. Evonetix is in a very exciting phase, having recently opened our early access program. This investment will support us as we execute on our commercial strategy to put benchtop gene synthesis in the hands of users.”

Paul Beastall, Chair of the Board of Directors at Evonetix, said: “We’re delighted to have secured additional funding from our existing investors in this oversubscribed round, testament not only to the promise of our novel approach to gene synthesis, but also the unrivalled expertise of our interdisciplinary team.”

Jim Tananbaum Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Foresite Capital, commented: “We continue to be impressed by the Evonetix team and technology, and are excited to lead this round to accelerate their commercial strategy and make gene synthesis more accessible."

Nelly Markova, Principal, Molten Ventures said: “Molten has been a big supporter of Evonetix from the early days. We are delighted with the huge progress the company has made towards revolutionising the gene synthesis process and look forward to continuing our partnership.”

Evonetix’s proprietary synthesis process utilises a novel silicon chip, to control the synthesis of DNA at many thousands of independent thermally controlled reaction sites, or ‘pixels’, and their assembly into highly accurate long DNA on the chip surface through the company’s patented Binary Assembly process. This approach enables the accurate synthesis of thousands of sequences on a single chip to meet the demand for complex libraries and assembly of long DNA in days rather than weeks, accelerating research across the exciting field of synthetic biology.

For more information about Evonetix, please visit: www.evonetix.com

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

The Evonetix Team
DNA synthesis chip preparation
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For Evonetix

Lorna Cuddon
Zyme Communications
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Email: lorna.cuddon@zymecommunications.com

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About Evonetix Ltd – www.evonetix.com

Evonetix is reimagining biology by developing a radically different approach to gene synthesis – a highly parallel desktop platform to synthesise DNA at unprecedented accuracy and scale. The technology builds on scalability and density from the semiconductor industry to deliver a step-change in performance for the production of DNA. The company’s platform will place DNA synthesis in the hands of every researcher and change how DNA is accessed, made and used. This new paradigm in gene synthesis will facilitate and enable the rapidly growing field of synthetic biology.

The proprietary Evonetix approach utilises a silicon chip, made by MEMS processing, that integrates physics with biology, and controls the synthesis of DNA at many thousands of independently controlled reaction sites or ‘pixels’ on the chip surface in a highly parallel fashion. The approach is compatible with both chemical and enzymatic DNA synthesis. Following synthesis, strands are assembled on-chip into double-stranded DNA in a process that identifies and removes errors, providing accuracy that is several orders of magnitude better than the conventional approach.

The Evonetix DNA writer will be a desktop device, available to every researcher, and providing scalable, accurate DNA synthesis to enable biological systems to be engineered with unprecedented accuracy and scale – this is third-generation DNA synthesis.