Venture Capital Firms

VC Firm, Clarus Ventures Leads $30 Million in Series C Funding for NanoString Technologies

Based in Seattle, Washington, one of the top profiling software and technologies producers, NanoString Technologies announced that it has closed $30 million in series C funding for the acceleration of the commercialization of its nCounter Analysis System that functions as both a diagnostic and research tools sector of the profiling industry. The funding was led by Clarus Ventures with existing investors, OVP Venture Partners and DFJ participating also.

NanoStrings Technologies is a company that produces and commercializes innovative profiling tools for the life sciences industry, which characterizes and qualifies expressions in complex biological samples. The technology and intellectual property of NanoString Technologies is very user friendly and easy to use. The prototype of NanoString Technologies was invented by Dr. Leroy Hood at the Biology Systems Institute in 2000. Prior to this round of funding, the company has raised over $17 million in capital to continue its business growth.

As part of the agreement for this round of funding, Dr. Nicholas Galakatos, cofounder and managing director of Clarus Ventures will join NanoStrings’ board of directors.

According to Dr. Galakatos, the team of investors at Clarus Ventures believes that NanoString has the best platform ever invented for expression profiling. The company’s technology is unique in the fact that it does not require the use of PCR to purify samples before profiling, making it a breakthrough in the industry.

According to the CFO and acting CEO of NanoStrings, Wane Burns, the fact that NanoStrings Technologies has closed this colossal round of funding from its investors is a testament to the marketability of this new product. Further validation of this investment is that this unique platform has drawn the attention of some key customers in the commercial and clinical researchers in an amazingly short period of time.

Proceeds from this round of funding will go to fuel the commercialization of NanoString’s new nCounter Analysis System and the enhancing of the company’s product commercialization.

Clarus Ventures is a vc firm that is dedicated to the success of companies and organizations in the life sciences industry. The vc firm was founded by Dr. Nicholas Galatakos, PhD; Dr. Dennis Henner, PhD; Jeffry Lelden, MD, PhD; Robert W. Liptak, Nicholas J. Simon, and other dedicated venture capitalists dedicated to the life sciences. Clarus Ventures has $1.2 billion under its management and some other companies in Clarus’s portfolio include Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Arovance, Inc., Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Biolex Therapeutics, ESBATech, AG, and others.

DFJ, or otherwise known as Draper Fisher Juvertson is a global vc firm that has offices in the United States, India, and China. DFJ was founded in 1985 and since then it has financed over 500 companies spanning a wide array of different industries. Some of DFJ’s best known investments include Hotmail, now owned by Microsoft and Skype, recently acquired by eBay. Other companies in DFJ’s portfolio include 4Info, Abuzz, Achex, AppStream Athena Health, BinOptics, Yahoo!, and others.

OVP Venture Partners was founded in 1983 and advertises itself as “a vc firm that does what other vc firms do, fund new companies.” OVP mainly invests in early stage companies. OVP likes to have deep partnerships with their portfolio companies and is dedicated to their success. Some other companies in OVP’s portfolio include Action Engine, AdmitOne Security, AskMe, Complete Genomics, EnerG2, and others.

For more information about NanoString Technologies, click here.

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