Synthego Raises $41 Million in Series B Financing Led by 8VC to Advance CRISPR Genome Engineering

REDWOOD CITY, CA--(Marketwired - Jan 4, 2017) - Synthego, a leading provider of genome engineering solutions, announces today a $41 million Series B financing. Since the company's founding in 2012, Synthego has raised a total of $50 million. The investment is led by technology venture firm 8VC, with participation from Jerry Yang's AME Cloud Ventures, Elements Capital, OS Fund, Alexandria Equities, ZhenFund, as well as CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna and prominent researcher Jamie H Doudna Cate. Previous investors Founders Fund, co-founded by Peter Thiel, Menlo Ventures, WI Harper Group, and Max Levchin's SciFi VC also participated in the round. The funds will be used for growth of commercial operations, international expansion, and introduction of new products.

"Synthego has quickly emerged as a leading provider of synthetic RNA in the CRISPR market. The team's ability to execute on vision is truly impressive," said Drew Oetting, founding partner at 8VC. "We believe Synthego is positioned to push the bounds of genome engineering by providing the biotech industry with innovative solutions that make world-class research tools accessible to all scientists."

"Synthego's platform uniquely enables scientists to conduct genome engineering research in a highly efficient, affordable, and scalable way," said Jennifer Doudna, a professor of Molecular Biology and Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. "The RNA synthesis capabilities of Synthego's team represent a significant leap forward for synthetic biology."

By relieving bottlenecks in research, Synthego accelerates the pace of discovery in applications such as therapeutics, diagnostics, stem cell research and synthetic biology. Synthego's technology makes accessible next-generation products that increase reliability and remove guesswork from experimental workflows, thereby speeding up research at an attractive price point.

"Our flagship offering, CRISPRevolution, brings to market a new standard of unmatched synthetic RNA products that make genome engineering applications research more effective, faster, and highly scalable," said Synthego CEO Paul Dabrowski. "By leveraging our proprietary platform, the next phase in our product evolution will offer comprehensive solutions for genome engineering, simplifying highly precise and predictable science through scalable automation and machine learning."

Synthego has set the benchmark for synthetic RNA used in CRISPR genome engineering: CRISPRevolution achieves up to 90% editing efficiency, reduces costs by 80%, and speeds up turnaround time from weeks to days. With increasing worldwide demand, CRISPRevolution is already shipping to over 30 countries and 9 of the world's top 10 biology universities.

For more information on Synthego visit www.synthego.com.

About Synthego
Founded by former SpaceX engineers, Synthego is a leading provider of genome engineering solutions. The company's flagship product, CRISPRevolution, is a portfolio of synthetic RNA designed for CRISPR genome editing and research. Synthego's vision is to bring precision and automation to genome engineering, enabling rapid and cost-effective research with consistent results for every scientist.

Headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, Synthego customers include leading institutions in over 30 countries around the world and 9 of the top 10 global biology universities.