IP Group plc - Portfolio company Oxford Nanopore announces £70m fundraising

IP Group plc (LSE: IPO) ("IP Group" or "the Group"), the developer of intellectual property-based businesses, is pleased to note that its portfolio company, Oxford Nanopore Technologies Limited ("Oxford Nanopore" or "the Company"), has raised £70.0 million in a new financing round via a private placement of ordinary shares.

Oxford Nanopore, a spin-out company from the University of Oxford specialising in nanopore-based electronic molecular analysis systems, recently commented that its handheld MinION device is commercially available and registration has opened for its PromethION Early Access Programme (PEAP). PromethION is a standalone device, which offers the nanopore sensing technology of MinION but enables higher throughput and sample numbers.  

Both new and existing investors in the UK, US and mainland Europe subscribed to the fundraising to support the Company's development and commercialisation of electronic molecular analysis systems. Funds will be used to support improvements to Oxford Nanopore's existing range of products and services and to further develop and expand the Company's innovative pipeline. Manufacturing and commercial activities will be expanded.

Following completion of the financing round, IP Group's undiluted beneficial stake of 19.9% in Oxford Nanopore will be valued at £192.9 million, representing an unrealised fair value gain to the Group of £50.3 million. IP Group has committed a further £13.9 million to Oxford Nanopore as part of this funding round.

This transaction brings the total funds raised by Oxford Nanopore since its formation in 2005 to
£251.0 million.

Alan Aubrey, Chief Executive of IP Group, said: "IP Group has been proud to support Oxford Nanopore since the Company's formation ten years ago. The Company has made excellent technical and commercial progress and the significant developments announced at its recent London Calling nanopore-sensing conference further reinforce our confidence in the Company's technology. I would like to congratulate the Oxford Nanopore team for all of their successes so far and we look forward to working with them as they seek to achieve their goal of making nanopore-sensing valuable, integral and available to anyone with a question about a living thing."

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About IP Group

IP Group is a leading UK intellectual property commercialisation company, developing technology innovations primarily from its research intensive partner universities. The Group offers more than traditional venture capital, providing its companies with access to business building expertise, networks, recruitment and business support.

IP Group's portfolio comprises holdings in around 90 early-stage to mature businesses across the Healthcare, Biotech, Cleantech and Technology sectors. These businesses include Oxford Nanopore Technologies, the DNA sequencing development company, Revolymer, best known for its removable chewing gum, and Xeros, which has received many accolades for its revolutionary clothes washing techniques with a much reduced requirement for water.

For more information, please visit our website at www.ipgroupplc.com.

About Oxford Nanopore Technologies

Oxford Nanopore Technologies is developing and commercialising a new generation of nanopore-based electronic systems for analysis of single molecules, including DNA, RNA and proteins. The handheld MinION™ device, the high-throughput/high sample number PromethION™ and GridION™ systems are designed to provide novel qualities in molecular sensing such as real-time data streaming, improved simplicity, efficiency and scalability of workflows and direct analysis of the molecule of interest. The devices may be used in scientific research, personalised medicine, crop science, security and defence and environmental applications and a number of applications, methods and tools have been published by MinION users. Products and services are priced for low total-cost-of-ownership DNA sequencing (or other analyses). Oxford Nanopore is developing or providing products and services to simplify all parts of the nanopore-based molecular analysis workflow. For sample preparation this includes VolTRAX, a rapid, programmable, portable, disposable sample preparation device designed to convert complex samples such as blood, saliva or environmental samples directly onto a nanopore sensing device. For analysis this includes Metrichor, a cloud based service for real time molecular analyses, vertically integrated with nanopore sensing devices. MinION is commercially available and registration has opened for the PromethION Early Access programme (PEAP).

Supported by a broad patent portfolio, the Oxford Nanopore pipeline includes multiple generations of nanopore-based sensing technologies, including those based on both biological and solid-state nanopores.

www.nanoporetech.com

ENDS