The DNA analysis startup Bluebee announced today it has raised €10 million in Series A financing from a strategic group of investors active at the crossroads of life sciences and ICT, including Capricorn ICT Arkiv, Korys and Biover II.
The fresh capital will be used for the ongoing development of the Bluebee platform, a unique cloud-based accelerated genomics analysis solution to enable fast, efficient and affordable processing of large volumes of genomics data.
Bluebee’s technology allows research centres, clinical labs and diagnostics companies to substantially reduce cost, complexity and throughput time of their genomic data analysis. The Bluebee solution has been designed to accelerate scientific and clinical breakthroughs, to simplify collaboration amongst scientists and to facilitate global roll-out of genetic tests.
Founded in 2011 by Prof. Dr. ir. Koen Bertels as a spin-off of the Delft University of Technology and Imperial College London, Bluebee offers a cloud-based, distributed computing solution combined with accelerated hardware. This allows mass sequencing data volumes to be processed in extremely short timeframes while respecting gold standard algorithms.
Hans Cobben, CEO of Bluebee, commented: “This is an exciting time for Bluebee. After a successful market introduction in the second half of 2014, and with a rapidly growing customer base, the time is right to shift gears. This funding will significantly boost our capacity to support our growth. We appreciate the continued support of our existing shareholders, and look forward to working with our new investors.”
In addition to the funding round, Bluebee appointed a new chairman of its board of advisors: Annie Vereecken, founder and former owner of the AML-Labo Riatol labs, which were sold to Sonic Healthcare Ltd in 2010. Her strong belief in Next Generation Sequencing and the impact on further development of lab business and clinical practice were the main reaseons to join Bluebee, as an investor and as chairman of the advisory board.
