SAN DIEGO, Jan. 10, 2000 -- Illumina Inc., announced today that it had completed a $28 million private equity financing.
New investors included the Tisch Family Fund, Lombard Odier & Cie, State Farm Automobile Insurance Company, Chase Capital Partners, PE Corporation, The Dow Chemical Company, and Chevron Technology Ventures. In addition, all existing investors, Venrock Associates, ARCH Venture Partners, CW Group and Tredegar Investments, participated.
"We are pleased to welcome our new investors and want to thank our existing investors for their continuing support," said Jay Flatley, president and chief executive officer of Illumina. "This financing will allow us to accelerate the development of our BeadArray™ technology, the first implementation of which will be a novel SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) genotyping system to be commercialized in collaboration with PE Biosystems."
Common SNPs number in the millions, and each person has a unique combination of SNP genotypes that underlies differences in susceptibility to diseases and response to treatment. The rapid, large-scale analysis of SNP genotypes is expected to accelerate the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of disease. "By providing the next generation tools to create new information, Illumina's technology positions the company to make significant contributions to the revolution in genomics and life sciences. We are delighted to join the existing investors in Illumina," stated Felix Baker of the Tisch Family Fund.
Illumina is pursuing applications in the fields of nucleic acid, protein and chemical analysis. "The modularity of the BeadArray™ technology allows Illumina to leverage its technology development into new and diverse applications. For instance, the optical nose may address important challenges in process control for the chemical industry," commented Dennis Merens, director of New Businesses and Corporate Venture Capital at The Dow Chemical Company.
Illumina Inc. was founded in 1998 to develop novel information-rich biological and chemical sensing systems to meet the needs of a range of emerging markets. At the heart of Illumina's technology is the BeadArray™, a randomly ordered self-assembled array of bead-based sensors. Illumina can pack tens of thousands of individual sensors into a square millimeter at the end of an optical fiber bundle. Initially, Illumina will target the information-intensive field of genetic variation analysis, an area of research that is being accelerated by the successes of the Human Genome Project. In addition, Illumina is developing its optical bead-based technology for the detection and analysis of chemicals and complex mixtures. Information about Illumina is available on the World Wide Web at www.illumina.com or by phoning 858/587-4290.
The name BeadArray™ is a trademark of Illumina Inc.
Contact: Jay Flatley, President & CEO of Illumina. 858-587-4290 x251 or jflatley@illumina.com.