Balderton and Mike Lynch’s tech fund Invoke Capital back Sophia Genetics, an AI DNA analysis startup, with £30m

A Swiss biotech firm that uses machine learning to analyse genetics used by several of the UK’s NHS trusts has bagged millions of pounds in fresh funding from Balderton Capital and Mike Lynch’s Invoke Capital.

Sophia Genetics’ technology can accelerate diagnosis of cancer and other hereditary diseases by using algorithms to analyse DNA, reducing the time taken to hours rather than months.

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The $30m series D was led by new investor Balderton with Pari-based 360 Capital Partners also participating, alongside previous backers Invoke, the investment firm set up by the Autonomy entrepreneur, and Belgian investment firm Alychlo founded by Omega Pharma founder Mark Coucke.

The startup, named one of MIT’s 50 smartest companies, already works with more than 300 hospitals around the world, including St. George’s Hospital in London, Oxford University Hospital and Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust and diagnoses more than 8,000 patients every month.

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“Sophia Genetics is a company at the forefront of two rapidly changing technologies: genomic medicine and artificial intelligence,” said Balderton partner James Wise.

“By giving every healthcare professional a standardised, straightforward and fast way to analyze these complex data sets is an essential step to unlock the potential of Data-Driven Medicine. As diagnostic kits and sequencers become cheaper and more powerful, we believe that there is an opportunity to build the defining software layer on top of these technologies in genomics, just as Windows did for PCs and Android has for smartphones, and Sophia is already leading in this field.”