3 September 2013
Eagle Genomics (Eagle), an expert provider of bioinformatics software and services across a wide range of the life science and other sectors, [has][today] announced the first closing of £590,000, as part of a planned £1million investment round in line with plans to expand its offerings.
This first closing of the investment round was led by Midven’s Rainbow Seed Fund together with angel investment from Jonathan Milner (CEO of Abcam) and other Cambridge Angels and members of London Business Angels (LBA), Cambridge Capital Group, and others.
This is Eagle’s first fund-raising after five years’ of profitable growth. The investment will be used to expand Eagle’s current offering, including the development of ElasticAP, a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) subscription platform, which will enable customers to analyse data through the Cloud using Eagle’s expertise. The Company also plans to expand its consulting business by pushing further into non-traditional areas for bioinformatics such as consumer goods, food safety and animal health.
David Flanders, CEO of Eagle said: “This fundraising will be crucial to Eagle’s future development. The company has made remarkable progress in the five years since founding and this investment will help in transforming Eagle into a major player in bioinformatics services. With ElasticAP we can significantly increase revenues and at the same time our consultancy business is expanding rapidly. From our beginnings in human health, we now have clients in such diverse sectors as plant sciences, food, animal health, and consumer products.”
Dr Andrew Muir, Director of Midven and Investment Director for lead investor Rainbow Seed Fund said: “We are very pleased to be supporting the company’s growth plans in a sector which we think has a great deal of potential. The team has done a super job in bootstrapping the company to a international business based on a thriving biomedical campus.”
Anthony Clarke, CEO of LBA, said: LBA is delighted to have helped David and his team at Eagle reach their first close including inital investment from our members plus a planned £40,000 from our in house EIS Fund to follow shortly. Our lead angel who is now joining the Board of Eagle has done a great job in helping to coordinate the syndication process between London and Cambridge.”
A second closing will take place within three months’ time with the aim of completing the £1m total. David Flanders, added, “We are in active conversation with several interested parties, which gives confidence in reaching our full target.
Eagle has over 30 customers worldwide from the large pharmaceutical, biotechnology, crop science, bio-fuels, personal hygiene, and animal health sectors.