Genome Insight, a global leader in Whole Genome Sequence analysis and interpretation, announced US $ 23 million in Series B funding.

Dunamu & Partners led the financing with participation from InterVest, Signite Partners, KC, and VNTG Corporation, as well as existing investors DSC Investment, Paratus Investment, and Schmidt. The funding will be allocated towards advancing Genome Insight’s data production and curation pipelines that enable scalable investigation of whole-genome sequences (WGS), the most comprehensive technique for understanding the molecular origin of human diseases. These efforts will bring WGS in real-world clinics for clinicians and patients for next-generation medical practice, in particular, for cancer and rare diseases.

Genome Insight is a start-up company with expertise in the biomedical curation of WGS data. WGS examines the entire genomic sequence of diseased tissues, providing the most comprehensive characterization of tens of thousands of genomic mutations carried on it as a whole. While historically confined as a research tool, due to its massive data size and high cost for data curation, WGS is a leading driver for opening up an ultimate era of personalized medicine with entire genomic information. Making biomedical sense of the vast amount of WGS data at an affordable cost, predictable timeline, and standardized procedure has been the main barrier to the widespread use of WGS.

"With the falling cost of genome data production, we are at the tipping point of a whole-genome based transformation in treating genetically driven illnesses such as cancer and rare diseases. We plan to bring the analysis and interpretation technologies to make whole-genome sequences meaningful,” said Young Seok Ju, founder of Genome Insight. “We are excited to have as our new investors, not only those in bio-tech but also those in digital-tech. This investment is a clear signal that the field is at the forefront of bio-tech and digital-tech convergence.”

Genome Insight was founded in 2020 in South Korea by co-founders Young Seok Ju and Jeong Seok Lee, who are both physician-scientists and professors at KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology). Earlier this year, the Company announced its incorporation as a US company and is now headquartered in San Diego, at the heart of the genomics hotbed of the west coast.