CRISPR tools play Synthego raises $41M in series B

Synthetic RNA company Synthego Corp. (Redwood City, Calif.) raised $41 million in a series B round led by 8VC. New investors AME Cloud Ventures, Elements Capital, OS Fund, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, ZhenFund, and University of California Berkeley professors Jennifer Doudna and Jamie H. Doudna Cate also participated, as did existing investors Founders Fund, Menlo Ventures, WI Harper Group and SciFi VC. Synthego has now raised a total of $50 million since it was founded in 2012.

Synthego is a reagent play. The company has created the first synthetic guide RNAs for CRISPR gene editing, and an automated process for generating the guide RNAs in purer batches than those produced by standard manufacturing methods (see BioCentury Innovations, Nov. 3)...