Biotechnology business Horizon Discovery has raised £11.3 million in a Series C funding round after completing a private placement of ordinary shares in the Cambridge company.

Biotechnology business Horizon Discovery has raised £11.3 million in a Series C funding round after completing a private placement of ordinary shares in the Cambridge company.

The investment wil fund the continuing development of the company’s core technology that provides research tools to support the development of personalised medicines. Additionally, Horizon Discovery plans to bolster its intellectual property portfolio and expand into new disease areas. It currently has a focus on medicines for the treatment of cancer.

MVM Life Sciences led the second close of the round. A consortium of existing investors including DFJ Esprit, Roche Venture Fund, Dr Jonathan Milner, Mr David Evans, Mr Peter Collins, Providence Investment Company and David Cleevely also participated.

Darrin Disley, formerly the company’s non-executive chairman, has been appointed chief executive officer following the fundraising.

Dr Chris Torrance and Professor Alberto Bardelli founded Horizon in July 2007 to commercialise the seminal rAAV gene targeting inventions of Professor David Russell of the University of Washington. Horizon has raised a total of £13.9 million since seed investment was secured in March 2008 and has achieved a 40-fold increase in valuation in the same period, according to a statement from the company.

Disley comments, ‘Horizon is very pleased to add another blue-chip investor who shares our vision to build a world-leading translational genomics company and a UK Biotech company to be proud of.’