Sep 30 2015
Precision NanoSystems, Inc. (PNI), a global nanomedicine company, has announced the completion of a $13.4 million private Series A financing. The investment was led by 5AM Ventures and Telegraph Hill Partners, with additional participants that include the Rising Tide Fund and other individual investors.
PNI will use the funding to expand product development, increase manufacturing capacity and accelerate commercialization of its novel instruments and reagents platform.
PNI is a manufacturer of instruments, kits and reagents in the global nanomedicine market providing tools for drug development and cell-specific delivery to study, diagnose and treat disease. PNI's flagship product, the NanoAssemblr™ Benchtop instrument, allows scientists to rapidly develop novel nanomedicine drug candidates for pre-clinical testing. PNI has sold over 60 NanoAssemblr Benchtop instruments worldwide to leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies as well as several elite academic institutions.
PNI's scale-up platform for producing nanomedicines is in beta test at several locations and under development for the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) manufacture of nanomedicines. PNI's instruments and consumables enable clients to develop a wide range of lipid and polymer nanoparticles for the delivery of genetic medicines (such as DNA, siRNA, mRNA, miRNA, CRISPR, etc.), small-molecule drugs and proteins.
"We are very enthusiastic about the expertise and experience that our new investors bring to Precision NanoSystems," said James Taylor, Co-Founder & CEO of Precision NanoSystems. "The team, together with the financial support provided by this investment, will allow PNI to accelerate the commercialization of our full suite of instruments, reagents and scale-up technology. The NanoAssemblr technology will provide our customers an expanded platform to develop the next generation of nanomedicines, significantly impacting the development of novel treatments for many diseases."
Concurrent with the financing, Andy Schwab, Founder and Managing Partner of 5AM Ventures, Deval Lashkari, Senior Partner of Telegraph Hill Partners, Andrew Booth, CFO STEMCELL Technologies, and Joe Victor, CEO of Startide Sciences, will join existing co-founding directors James Taylor and Dan Nixon on the company's Board. Victor will take the role of Executive Chairman.
PNI would like to thank the outgoing Directors, scientific co-founders Drs. Pieter Cullis and Carl Hansen, and long-time Directors Steve Fane and Paul Geyer for their invaluable support in bringing PNI's initial technologies to market. Drs. Cullis and Hansen will remain involved in the company as scientific advisors.