GSN closes $12M Series C financing

Nov 2 2010

Gene Security Network, Inc. (GSN) today announced the closing of its $12M Series C financing. The financing round was led by Sequoia Capital and included Claremont Creek Ventures, Founders Fund, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

“I am pleased that this outstanding syndicate of investors, led by Sequoia, share our mission of helping people worldwide have healthy children”

GSN is a molecular diagnostics company using data informatics to enhance genetic testing of DNA. GSN has established a leadership position in the in vitro fertilization market (IVF) where its proprietary Parental Support™ technology diagnoses the genetic state of a single cell from an embryo.

"I am pleased that this outstanding syndicate of investors, led by Sequoia, share our mission of helping people worldwide have healthy children," said Matthew Rabinowitz, Ph.D., President and CEO of Gene Security Network. "The new investment will accelerate the application of our Parental Support technology beyond the fertility market, into areas such as prenatal diagnostics which crucially needs tests with enhanced accuracy and coverage."

Over four million births occur in the United States each year. Over one percent of these births result from in vitro fertilization (IVF), with over 138,000 IVF cycles occurring annually. Regardless of whether a child is conceived by IVF or traditional means, there is a 3-5% rate of birth defects or genetic illness.

"GSN has been able to rapidly commercialize its unique Parental Support technology across multiple applications in the in vitro fertilization market and is now in a strong position to expand and deliver revolutionary tools to the broader reproductive industry," said Roelof Botha, Partner at Sequoia Capital. "Sequoia is pleased to lead this round and I very much look forward to being involved in the success of the company."

Couples undergoing IVF have been using GSN's Parental Support technology since 2008 for preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to help identify embryos free of genetic disease prior to transfer to the mother's uterus. Testing is available through most leading IVF clinics in the United States with recent expansion into international markets. The accuracy of the Parental Support diagnostic and biology it has revealed about the human embryo have been published in the journal Human Reproduction. Clinical outcomes for couples using the testing technology were recently presented at the American Society of Reproductive Medicine annual meeting in Denver, Colorado.