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Nina Capital, APEX Medical, and Cambridge Enterprise invest in transformational open-source data technology to deliver precision medicine at scale
University of Cambridge technology spin-out Zetta Genomics has raised £2.5 million in new seed funding. The round secures leading global venture capital investment in the company’s XetaBase platform, a transformational genomic data management technology to power the discovery and delivery of precision medicine at scale.
XetaBase is built on the open-source OpenCB platform, the first proven big data system optimised for genomic data. The result of a five-year collaboration between Genomics England and the University of Cambridge, OpenCB enables genotypes to be stored in a database.
The lead developer of OpenCB, Ignacio Medina, is Head of the Computational Biology Lab at the University of Cambridge and Zetta Genomics’ founder and co-developer of XetaBase.
XetaBase allows researchers and clinicians to securely store, easily access, and dynamically interrogate vast and increasing volumes of genomic data—on demand. The technology brings genome-enabled discovery, healthcare analytics, and population research into the lab—and prognostics, diagnostics, and therapeutics into the clinic.
The seed funding round comes as genome-enabled precision medicine moves from the niche to the mainstream. The UK has led the world with its new Genomics Medicine Service, making testing routine within the publicly funded NHS. These and other population level initiatives are predicted to see 60 million genomes sequenced to 2025 and 100 million by the end of the decade.
Market growth in the genomics sector is equally impressive, with 2022 research suggesting CAGR will exceed 15% to 2026 and market value will more than double between 2020 and 2026 to US$47 billion.
Zetta Genomics’ expertise, technologies, and ongoing growth have attracted investment from Cambridge Enterprise, APEX Ventures (Vienna), and Nina Capital (Barcelona).
Market and precision medicine opportunities have helped Zetta Genomics to create an extensive, growing and valuable partnership network with organisations such as Fujitsu, Future Perfect Healthcare, Genomics England, Microsoft, the NHS, and the University of Cambridge. Microsoft, for example, selected Zetta Genomics for its Reactor programme—identified as a company of high value potential—providing tailored support across its services, including the Azure cloud platform.
VC-backed funding will focus on growth, enhancing the company’s partnership network while it expands from the UK to open both Spanish and US offices. Investment will also focus on talent, with a five-fold increase in headcount to secure additional software, development and commercialisation expertise.
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