Casdin Capital invests $50 million in DNA Script in Series B financing.

Paris/ Munich — Casdin Capi­tal, a New York-based invest­ment firm focu­sed on the life scien­ces and health­care indus­try, was advi­sed by Baker McKen­zie in leading the over­sub­scri­bed $50 million Series B fund­rai­sing exten­sion round for DNA Script. — Other inves­tors in the expan­ded Series B finan­cing round include Dana­her Life Scien­ces, Agilent Tech­no­lo­gies, Merck KGaA, Darm­stadt, Germany, M. Ventures, LSP Life Science Part­ners, Bpifrance Large Venture Fund and Illu­mina Ventures.

Proceeds from the expan­ded Series B finan­cing round will enable DNA Script to acce­le­rate the deve­lo­p­ment of its enzy­ma­tic DNA synthe­sis (EDS) plat­form tech­no­logy — speci­fi­cally to support the launch of the company’s SYNTAX™ DNA bench­top printer.

“With a cross-border team of specia­li­zed lawy­ers in the field of biotech­no­logy life scien­ces, we were able to bring the tran­sac­tion to a swift close toge­ther with our client,” commen­ted Bert­hold Hummel, lead corpo­rate part­ner in Munich.

Foun­ded in 2011, Casdin Capi­tal, LLC brings deep under­stan­ding, exper­tise and a long-term perspec­tive to finan­cing the next gene­ra­tion of life scien­ces inno­va­tion. Casdin Capi­tal specia­li­zes in the firm’s diagno­stics and mole­cu­lar infor­ma­tion port­fo­lio and has inves­ted in many of the leading pioneers, inclu­ding but not limi­ted to Foun­da­tion Medi­cine, Invi­tae, Adap­tive Biotech­no­lo­gies, Flati­ron Health and 23andMe.

DNA Script was foun­ded in Paris in 2014 and is the world leader in the produc­tion of de novo synthe­tic nucleic acids using an enzy­ma­tic tech­no­logy. The company’s goal is to acce­le­rate inno­va­tion in life scien­ces and tech­no­logy through rapid, afforda­ble and high-quality DNA synthe­sis. DNA Script’s approach takes advan­tage of nature’s billi­ons of years of evolu­tion in DNA synthe­sis to enable genome-scale synthesis.

Baker McKenzie’s Corpo­rate / M&A and Life Scien­ces team regu­larly advi­ses large phar­maceu­ti­cal, finan­cial inves­tor and biotech compa­nies on early stage dome­stic and inter­na­tio­nal health­care tran­sac­tions. Most recently, Baker McKen­zie advi­sed BioMed­Part­ners on its EUR 10.7 million Series A equity finan­cing in Tubu­lis, Cure­Vac on its stra­te­gic mRNA tech­no­logy colla­bo­ra­tion with GSK, LSP Life Science Part­ners on a USD 38.5 million Series B finan­cing in DNA Script, listed 4SC AG in a capi­tal increase and inter­na­tio­nal private place­ment, Gala­pa­gos in its 10-year global rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment colla­bo­ra­tion with Gilead, MODAG in a EUR 12 million Series A finan­cing, Hita­chi Chemi­cal Company, Tokyo, in its acqui­si­tion of German apceth Biopharma, Forbion as lead inves­tor in a EUR 17 mn. Series C equity finan­cing of Omei­cos Thera­peu­tics and in a USD 54 million Series A equity finan­cing of Gotham Thera­peu­tics Corpo­ra­tion, Mundi­pharma in the sale of its Limburg produc­tion, Cure­Vac AG in a colla­bo­ra­tion with Eli Lilly and Hill­house Capi­tal as co-inves­­tor in the EUR 50 million Series C finan­cing of Hookipa Biotech.

Legal advi­sor Casdin Capi­tal: Baker McKenzie
Lead Corporate/M&A: Bert­hold Hummel, Foto (Part­ner, Munich), Gautier Valdi­guié (Asso­ciate, Paris)
Other lawy­ers invol­ved: Corporate/M&A: Matthieu Grol­lemund (Part­ner, Paris), Mada­­lina-Geor­­gi­ana Asan­dului (Asso­ciate, Paris)
Tax: Guil­laume Le Camus (Part­ner, Paris), Robin Gaulier (Senior Asso­ciate, Paris)
Employ­ment: Jere­mie Paubel (Part­ner, Paris), Roxane Raissi (Asso­ciate, Paris)

About Baker McKenzie
Baker McKen­zie advi­ses clients to successfully deal with the chal­lenges of globa­liza­tion. We solve complex legal problems across natio­nal borders and legal fields. Our unique culture — grown over 70 years — enables our 13,000 employees to under­stand local markets while opera­ting inter­na­tio­nally. We use the trus­ting and friendly coope­ra­tion in our inter­na­tio­nal network for the bene­fit of our clients.

In Germany, around 200 lawy­ers with proven profes­sio­nal exper­tise and inter­na­tio­nal expe­ri­ence repre­sent the inte­rests of their clients at the offices in Berlin, Düssel­dorf, Frankfurt/Main and Munich. As one of the leading German law firms, Baker McKen­zie advi­ses natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies and insti­tu­ti­ons in all areas of commer­cial law.