Oxford Genetics receives £1m investment

The injection of capital follows an impressive year of growth for the company.

Oxford Genetics has secured the financing from Mercia Technologies, which is making the investment as part of its focus on supporting the creation, funding and scaling of innovative technology businesses with high growth potential.

The injection of capital follows an impressive year of growth for Oxford Genetics, which recently announced its relocation to new, state-of-the-art facilities in Oxford Science Park. The move enables its team to access dedicated cell development suites and new technology capable of automating certain processes, allowing the DNA expert to scale its services in line with increasing customer demand.

Commenting on the investment, Dr Ryan Cawood, CEO at Oxford Genetics, said: “We are pleased to receive this investment from Mercia, which follows a period of sustained and exciting growth for Oxford Genetics. Our biotech business has grown significantly in the last year, and is now looking to reinforce its position as the world leader in DNA design, protein expression, and virus and cell line engineering.

“With Mercia’s capital and support, as well as the move to our new facilities, we are confident that we can continue to scale the business into a global provider of synthetic biology solutions.”

Oxford Genetics first received investment from Mercia in July 2015, after being identified as the next ‘Emerging Star’ from Mercia’s third party funds. Mercia Technologies now holds a 46% share in the company and this latest round of funding will enable Oxford Genetics to continue licensing its technologies within the rapidly expanding markets of cell and gene therapy.

Dr Mark Payton, CEO of Mercia Technologies PLC, said: “Synthetic biology is a key sub-sector for Mercia and the Board was pleased to be able to make a further investment in Oxford Genetics as it moves to a “pivotal stage” of its DNA design development.

“We are confident that with our support Oxford Genetics will continue to scale becoming what we believe will be a global provider of synthetic biology solutions, in what is a very attractive and growing market.”