Genome engineering company Inscripta raises $125M

BOULDER — Inscripta Inc. said it raised $125 million in its Series D funding round, almost doubling its total funding haul as it prepares to start commercializing its gene engineering system.

The round was led by Paladin Capital Group, along with previous investors and new investors JS Capital Management LLC and Oak HC. The Boulder company is developing a series of instruments and software for researchers to create libraries of modified cells and track how those cells react within an experiment.

“We are excited to see that by overcoming the limitations of existing CRISPR-based gene editing, our digital genome engineering tools are already having a significant impact by enabling researchers to design experiments that were previously impossible,” CEO Kevin Ness said in a prepared statement.

The company expects to start shipping to early access customers in the first half of 2020 for around $300,000 per unit.

Genomic engineering, also known as “gene editing,” is the process of adding or removing certain parts of a living organism’s genetic blueprint and purposefully creating mutations. The process could be used to cure genetic diseases such as cancer and HIV, but remains the center of a larger debate over medical ethics of manipulating the human genome.

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