Although a recent discovery in biotechnology, CRISPR has enabled scientists to hack everything from biofuel to drug discovery. This article lists the next generation of CRISPR startups that are set to conquer new frontiers in biotechnology.
10 CRISPR Startups To Watch in 2018
These CRISPR startups mostly have scientific founders with a few exceptions. Venture funds globally are pouring billions to advance developments by these startups further.
1. Mammoth Biosciences
Mammoth Biosciences, based in San Francisco, California, is a medical diagnostic startup that utilizes CRISPR based technology to detect the presence of diseases. Mammoth wants to democratize disease detection by bringing testing out of the lab into the point-of-care at an affordable price. It is one of the most widely recognized CRISPR startups today.
Founding: 2017 by Jennifer Doudna (CRISPR Pioneer) along with Trevor Martin, Ashley Tehranchi, Janice Chen and Lucas Harrington
Select Investors: Mayfield Fund, 8VC, NFX, Tectonic Capital
Total Disclosed Funding Size: $23M
2. eGenesis Bio
eGenesis Bio, a Cambridge MA-based startup, utilizes gene-editing technology to advance xenotransplantation procedures for the medical industry. The company plans to use the genetic modification of pig clones to tackle virology and immunology challenges that come with transplanting pig organs in humans.
Founding: 2014 by Harvard Genetics professor George M. Church and Dr. Luhan Yang
Select Investors: ARCH Venture Partners, Biomatics Capital Partners, Khosla Ventures, Fan Ventures
Total Disclosed Funding: $40M
3. Synthego
Synthego, a Silicon Valley, California based genetic engineering startup, enables scientists in their CRISPR based genetics research in an affordable, efficient, and scalable manner. In the long run, the company envisions to automate biotech research and handle the lab work that the scientists currently undertake themselves.
Founding: 2012 by ex-SpaceX engineers Paul Dabrowski and Michael Dabrowski
Select investors: 8VC, Intel Capital, Founders Fund, Menlo Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, Jennifer Doudna
Total Disclosed Funding: $49.5M
4. Caribou Biosciences
Caribou Biosciences, a Berkeley, California based biotechnology startup, offers CRISPR based gene-editing technology for cellular engineering and analysis.
Founding: 2011 by members of the Doudna Laboratory at the University of California – James Berger, Jennifer A. Doudna, Martin Jinek, Rachel E. Haurwitz.
Select Investors: Anterra Capital, F-Prime Capital Partners, Heritage Group, Novartis, Genoa Ventures, Jenny Rooke
Total Disclosed Funding: $74.6M
5. Poseida Therapeutics
Poseida Therapeutics, a San Diego, California based company, utilizes proprietary gene engineering technologies to develop targeted cancer therapeutics and gene therapy for orphan diseases.
Founding: 2015 by Eric Ostertag
Select Investors: Longitude Capital, Vivo Capital, Tavistock Life Sciences, Malin Corp
Total Disclosed Funding: $84.5M
6. Benchling
Benchling, a San Francisco, California based life science R&D software company, offers molecular biology suite that incorporates batch sequence design, CRISPR design, cloning software, and lab notebook.
Select Investors: Benchmark, F-Prime Capital, Fidelity Investments, Thrive Capital
Founding: 2012 by Ashutosh Singhal, Cory Li, Sajith Wickramasekara
Total Disclosed Funding: $27.4M
7. Inscripta
Inscripta, a Boulder, Colorado-based biotechnology company, offers gene-editing tools to researchers. These tools include a family of CRISPR enzymes (MADzymes), custom nucleases, and a full suite of gene-editing tools (instruments, reagent, and software) that bring speed and precision in gene-editing.
Select Investors: Merieux Developpement, Venrock, Spruce Capital Partners, NanoDimension
Founding: 2015 by Andrew Garst, Ryan T Gill, Tanya Lipscomb
Total Disclosed Funding: $84.5M
8. Exonics Therapeutics
Exonics Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts based biotechnology company, develops transformative SingleCut CRISPR gene editing therapies to treat genetic neuromuscular diseases.
Select Investors: CureDuchenne Ventures, The Column Group
Founding: 2017 by a molecular biologist, Eric Olson
Total Disclosed Funding: $45M
9. Senti Biosciences
Senti Biosciences, a San Francisco based synthetic biology company, utilizes the latest techniques in the fields to build the future of gene and cell-based therapies. Senti is a resident company of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS, in South San Francisco.
Select Investors: New Enterprise Associates, 8VC, Pear Ventures, Lux Capital, Menlo Ventures, Nest.Bio, Omega Funds, Goodman Capital
Founders: 2016 by Jim Collins, Philip Lee. Tim Lu, Wilson Wong
Total Disclosed Funding: $53M
10. PLANTeDIT
PLANTeDIT, Cork, Ireland based agri-biotech startup, leverages CRISPR/Cas9 tools to develop genome-edited plant products.
Select Investors: SOSV, RebelBio
Founding: 2017 by plant biologist chidananda nagamangala
Total Disclosed Funding: $100K
