Element, with DNA Sequencer Praised As ‘Foundational’ to Biotech Innovation, Raises $277M

San Diego’s Element Biosciences has announced over $277 million in Series D investment to support its growing customer base with DNA sequencing and other technologies.

The oversubscribed round was led by Wellington Management with participation from new and existing investors, including Samsung Electronics, Fidelity, Foresite Capital, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc, and Venrock, among others.

This brings the Sorrento Valley-based firm’s cumulative raise to over $680 million, the company said in a news release.

“After years of watching Element’s impressive progress from the sidelines, we are excited to support the company’s next chapter of growth and development,” said Joshua Sommerfeld, healthcare sector lead at Wellington Management Private Investing. “Their platform combines quality, cost, and flexibility advantages that disrupt the incumbent price curve.”

Element, he concluded, “has potential to accelerate biological discovery.”

The funding will support the commercialization of AVITI, Element’s bench top DNA sequencer, and bolster the upcoming launch of AVITI24, the first instrument to combine state-of-the-art sequencing and cyto-profiling, or mapping cell characteristics, into a single integrated biology platform.

AVITI24 aims to revolutionize research by enabling simultaneous examination of DNA, RNA, proteins, phosphoproteins and cell structure within single cells.

“We co-founded Element based on a simple belief that cutting-edge science should be available to the entire research community. Element has taken the first step to democratize sequencing and will continue helping the community uncover the secrets of biology with high-quality, flexible, rapidly iterative and affordable tools that are accessible to more scientists,” said Molly He, the company’s CEO.

In the last 12 months, the market for AVITI has grown from approximately 40 units to more than 190. Its customers span a range of industries including academia, biotech, cancer research, and agricultural science in more than 25 countries.

“Molly and the team at Element are cementing their position in a highly competitive environment,” said Jong-Hee Han, Vice Chairman and CEO at Samsung Electronics. “Their products set a new industry standard and are foundational to the next wave of biological innovation that will help researchers and businesses around the globe deliver on the promises of precision medicine and artificial intelligence.”

The University of Minnesota Genomics Center (UMGC), which installed its first AVITI in mid 2023, has purchased four additional AVITIs over the past year. Kenny Beckman, director of the center, called its scale “a great fit for our clients, most of whom need both fast turnaround and low cost.”

Another customer, Thomas P. Slavin, chief scientific officer at HALO Precision Diagnostics, which installed four AVITI sequencers in 2023, said “Element’s groundbreaking sequencing is driving significant advancements in precision diagnostics research across critical disease areas.”