Human Longevity Inc. raced to a billion-dollar plus valuation on the hopes that it could apply advances in genomics to improve medicine. A drastic “down round” financing this week suggests investors have questions about its own longevity. The funding round values the company—co-founded by genomics pioneer J. Craig Venter in 2014—at around $310 million, according to a Human Longevity regulatory filing obtained by Lagniappe Labs LLC, whose Prime Unicorn Index tracks valuations of privately held companies. That marks an 80% decline...
Genomics start - up Human Longevity has seen a further fall in its value , with its latest funding round putting its value at $ 310 m , a fall of 80 % from its estimated $ 1.6bn investment in 2017 . The company expects to pull in $ 25 m via a rights offering to existing shareholders , in a funding “ down round ” that aims to attract short - term financing . The company ’s fortunes soared in early 2017 as it looked forward to take advantage of technological advances to fuel improvements in medicine , yet it did not make the progress it expected .