PetaGene Secures $2.1M Series A Funding Led by Romulus Capital to Advance Genomic Data Compression Solutions

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that PetaGene, a Cambridge, UK-based startup specializing in genomic data compression, announced on December 19, 2018, that it had secured $2.1 million in Series A financing. The round was led by the U.S. venture capital firm Romulus Capital, with participation from other unnamed investors based in Silicon Valley and London. This financing brings the company’s total assets to $3.2 million, marking its first funding round exceeding $1 million since its initial raise in 2016.

PetaGene originated from a modest idea conceived by a team of PhD researchers at the University of Cambridge, who sought to collaboratively design a novel approach to address the challenge of genomic data storage. Three years later, the team brought this initial concept to fruition. At the Bio-IT World conference held in Boston, the team’s PetaSuite compression tool was awarded the Best Poster Prize.

Today, PetaGene has matured into an established company with a product suite capable of compressing genomic data by up to sixfold without compromising data quality. Beyond the awards and honors it has received, the PetaGene team is driven daily by its mission to reduce the size of genomic datasets and associated storage costs, thereby facilitating easier access to and analysis of genomic data. Reportedly, the company will leverage its latest round of financing to expand its technology team in Cambridge and its global sales force, while further broadening PetaGene’s product portfolio.

Dan Greenfield, co-founder of PetaGene, stated, “As whole-genome sequencing becomes increasingly prevalent, the vast volume of data it generates places immense strain on infrastructure. Our role is to help organizations manage this data. Through our compression technology, we can reduce the size of these datasets by tenfold and enable faster transmission for research and analysis, thereby democratizing precision medicine in the process.”

At present, the storage and processing of genomic data incur substantial additional costs and have become a bottleneck in data processing speed. It is estimated that by 2025, the annual volume of genomic data will reach 40 exabytes (EB). Therefore, improved file compression technologies are poised to become a key driver of innovation in genomics-based research, including the development of new personalized drugs and therapies.

Dan Greenfield explained, “We have invested heavily in R&D to build a high-performance compressor for genomic data, enabling our compression performance to surpass existing state-of-the-art technologies—sometimes by sixfold or more.”

Dan Greenfield (Image source: PetaGene official website)

“Meanwhile,” Dan Greenfield added, “customers all want to ensure that original files can be accurately restored. Unfortunately, other compression solutions are unable to restore the original files and may even discard or modify internal content without notifying users. Therefore, we have devoted considerable effort to ensuring bit-for-bit preservation of original files, even providing commercial guarantees to our customers. I cannot disclose the details of our proprietary technology here, but we take pride in our industry-leading performance and will continue to improve it.”

Krishna K. Gupta, Founder and General Partner at Romulus Capital, stated that he was impressed by the segment of the genomics value chain targeted by PetaGene, which prompted the firm’s initial investment in 2017. He remarked, “Since then, their ability to successfully develop cloud-based products, coupled with strong interest from potential customers, has continually reinforced our conviction.”

PetaGene’s co-founder added, “Our customers use the money they save to purchase our software. The smaller their data files are, the more revenue we generate, and the more they save on storage and data transmission costs. However, we do not charge customers for accessing or decompressing compressed data.”

PetaGene’s target customers include pharmaceutical companies, academic research institutions, clinical laboratories in hospitals, and genomic sequencing companies.

Romulus Capital is a forward-looking venture capital firm that blends classical humanistic substance with the exciting realities of modern entrepreneurship, investing in startup technology companies aspiring to become industry leaders. The firm invests $100,000 to $1 million in outstanding entrepreneurs—often first-time founders—who are frequently affiliated with top-tier universities and incubators. To date, Romulus Capital has invested in more than six companies, with total investments exceeding $5 million.

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