Illumina has set up its first hub for genomics start-up funding outside the US, and has chosen Cambridge in the UK for its location.
The latest Illumina Accelerator will be based in Granta Park – adjacent to Illumina’s EMEA headquarters – and will offer seed investment, access to Illumina’s genomics tools, business guidance and lab space to fledgling genomics firms.
While the decision to locate the unit next to Illumina’s HQ isn’t unexpected, it’s nevertheless a boost to the UK’s ambition to turn the ‘golden triangle’ extending between Cambridge, Oxford and London into a go-to location for life sciences companies.
Cambridge is of course also where Illumina was carrying out the DNA sequencing for the UK’s 100,000 Genomes Project, in collaboration with Genomics England and other partners such as the Wellcome Trust.
Paula Dowdy
Paula Dowdy, Illumina’s general manager of commercial operations for EMEA, said the Cambridge launch means the company is “expertly positioned to further catalyse the rapidly expanding genomics ecosystem” across the region.
Illumina’s first accelerator in San Francisco was set up in 2014 and has already invested in 33 startups in the US and overseas – covering applications in therapeutics, diagnostics, software, and consumer genomics – that have collectively raised over $300m in venture capital funding.
Applications for the first funding cycle in Cambridge – as well as for the eleventh funding cycle in San Francisco – are due by 1 November, and the awards will be made in spring 2020. Thereafter the UK accelerator will run two six-month funding cycles each year.
It’s the second new accelerator launched in Cambridge in the last three months, coming after Start Codon announced plans to provide early-stage funding pots of up to £250,000 for 50 start-ups over the next five years.
Illumina is joining forces with several venture firms for the Cambridge accelerator, including SV Health Investors, Sofinnova Partners, Seventure Partners and F-Prime Capital, as well as providing its own funding via its Illumina Ventures unit.
Professor Sir John Bell, lead for the UK Life Sciences Industrial Strategy, said the new accelerator “will undoubtedly contribute to the UK’s life sciences effort by galvanising genomics startups to harness the rapid and affordable next-generation sequencing technology pioneered by Illumina and develop applications that will benefit human health the world over.”