MADISON,
W I -November 1, 2004 - NimbleGen Systems Inc. announced today
the closing of its series F financing in the amount of $12.75
million. The Company, which earlier this year announced a partnership
with market leader Affymetrix, Inc. (Nasdaq: AFFX) to manufacture
made-to-order NimbleExpress™ Arrays for use on Affymetrix
GeneChip® instrument systems, provides customized high-density
microarray products and services with unprecedented flexibility
for functional genomics experiments. NimbleGen has raised a total
of $41 million since its inception in 2000.
"We're
extremely gratified by the continued support of our inside investors,
and we welcome the new investors who have joined in this round.
This investment is a vote of confidence in our performance to
date as well as the plans we have developed for growing our business
in the future," said Stanley Rose, Ph.D., NimbleGen President
and CEO.
Current investors
Baird Venture Partners and Venture Investors LLC led this latest
round of financing, augmented by new investor Cargill Ventures
(Minneapolis, MN), the wholly owned venture capital group of Cargill
that invests in early stage life sciences and information technology
companies, and Topspin Partners. "We believe NimbleGen is
uniquely positioned in the microarray market. Its highly flexible
platform technology both expands the gene expression market and
enables new and novel applications for microarrays. Cargill utilizes
custom microarrays within both its Biotechnology Development Center
and Cargill Dow joint venture for development and discovery work
around new genomes," said Cargill Ventures President Jim
Sayre. In connection with the financing, Sanjiv Arora, Director
at Cargill Ventures, will join NimbleGen's board of directors.
"This
financing is reflective of the great strides that have been made
by NimbleGen Systems. Within the past 12-18 months alone, the
company was the first to release the entire human genome on a
single chip; has won several grants associated with the ENCODE
project; is the only commercial entity to provide ChIP (chromatin
immunoprecipitation) chip™ assays along with other applications;
and negotiated a partnership with Affymetrix to manufacture, or
OEM, custom chips called NimbleExpress™ within the GeneChip®
format," said Paul Carbone of Baird Venture Partners. "NimbleGen
Systems has assembled a world class team of managers and scientists
who have done an outstanding job of positioning the company for
rapid growth with their technical accomplishments and strategic
relationships," added John Neis, Venture Investors LLC, "This
significant round of financing and the addition of two new investors
gives the company the resources to fully advance the applications
of the technology and serve customers' needs in new and existing
markets."
In addition
to Baird Venture Partners and Venture Investors LLC, all of the
company's other existing venture capital and institutional investors
participated in the round, including Skyline Ventures, Tactics
II Investments LLC, State of Wisconsin Investment Board, and The
Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF).
About
NimbleGen Systems Inc.
NimbleGen Systems (http://www.nimblegen.com/) is the leading supplier
of custom-designed high-density microarray products and services,
offering unprecedented flexibility for genomics research. NimbleGen's
Maskless Array Synthesis (MAS) technology combines photo-deposition
chemistry with digital light projection to shorten array fabrication
from months to hours. Customers benefit from extreme flexibility,
optimized array design, highly reproducible array fabrication
and statistically robust results-all with low cost and quick turnaround.
NimbleGen is working with scientists around the world to develop
and deploy a wide range of new microarray applications.
About
Cargill
Cargill Ventures ( www.cargillventures.com) invests in early stage
technology-driven companies that enhance business processes, growth
and innovation in global industries relevant to Cargill. Cargill
Ventures maintains offices in San Mateo, California and Minneapolis,
Minnesota. It is the venture capital investment group of Cargill,
Inc., a privately-held company with over 101,000 employees across
61 countries and revenues of approximately $60 billion. Cargill
is an international provider of food, agricultural, financial,
and risk management products and services, with a mission to become
the premier provider of distinctive solutions for its food and
agricultural customers.
