US biotechnology company Illumina has pledged $100m over a ten-year period to a new, venture capital (VC) firm known as Illumina Ventures. This new organisation will share the same values and vision for the future as its parent company, although it will operate independently. Illumina joined Warburg Pincus and Sutter Hill Ventures last August in creating Helix, a company formed to help consumers discover insights into their own genomes. Nevertheless, a condition of this investment is Illumina becoming the majority limited partner in the new firm's first fund. The deal was announced on Monday at an event hosted by Bill Gates Foundation president Bruce Beutler and held at the San Francisco home of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Examples of innovative projects include cutting-edge nucleic acid sequencing techniques, products that improve the genomics ecosystem and how this can be utilised to improve health and wellbeing. This initiative is the latest in a series where the goal is the expansion of genomics technologies and companies via investment in startups.
US biotechnology company Illumina has pledged $100m over a ten-year period to a new, venture capital (VC) firm known as Illumina Ventures. This new organisation will share the same values and vision for the future as its parent company, although it will operate independently. Nevertheless, a condition of this investment is Illumina becoming the majority limited partner in the new firm's first fund. The deal was announced on Monday at an event hosted by Bill Gates Foundation president Bruce Beutler and held at the San Francisco home of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Examples of innovative projects include cutting-edge nucleic acid sequencing techniques, products that improve the genomics ecosystem and how this can be utilised to improve health and wellbeing. This initiative is the latest in a series where the goal is the expansion of genomics technologies and companies via investment in startups.