NEW YORK, March 13, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Gencove, the leading low-pass genome sequencing platform, announced today a $3 million investment led by Spero Ventures. Alexandria Venture Investments and Burst Capital participated in the round, along with existing investors Third Kind Venture Capital and Version One Ventures. The funding will be used to develop new applications for agricultural markets as well as expand Gencove's commercial operations in human genetics. Shripriya Mahesh, partner at Spero, will join Gencove's board of directors.
"Genomics will be foundational to the health and well-being of humanity and the planet," said Shripriya Mahesh. "We are excited partner with Gencove in its mission to bring affordable whole genome sequencing to customers and industries that have never before been able to affordably integrate it at scale."
"With their operational expertise and experience in scaling software companies, Spero is the ideal partner as we expand Gencove into new markets," said Joe Pickrell, CEO of Gencove. "We're excited to have a partner on board that brings a deep understanding of opportunities in both human and agricultural genomics."
Founded by leading scientists from the New York Genome Center, Gencove develops technologies that enable high-throughput and low-cost genome sequencing. Using its innovative genome imputation technology, Gencove delivers high quality genomic interpretation from small amounts of sequencing data. Gencove's technology partners include BGI and SeqWell. Customers span consumer, clinical, and agricultural markets and include leading academic institutions like the Broad Institute, University of Michigan, and Oxford University.
About Gencove
Gencove is a spin-out of the New York Genome Center dedicated to making genomic data more accessible and interpretable through the development of molecular and computational tools. Gencove's flagship product is its low-pass genome sequencing platform; the company operates a laboratory in New York and offers both low-pass sequencing and analytics software as a service, with customers that include top academic institutions, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical companies. More information is available at www.gencove.com.
About Spero Ventures
Spero Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in the things that make life worth living: well-being, work & purpose, and human connection. Spero is a diverse team of thesis-driven, high-conviction investors that fund purpose-driven companies that can reach venture scale. Spero's sole LP is Pierre Omidyar, an entrepreneur, and philanthropist best known as the founder of eBay. Learn more at www.spero.vc.