IP Group's investment in Oxford Nanopore gains in value

IP Group's stake in portfolio company Oxford Nanopore Technologies has gained in value after the DNA sequencing outfit raised £100m from IP, Woodford Investment Management and GT Healthcare.

FTSE 250-listed IP's 19.7% stake, including the £19.5m it has invested this year, was valued at £246.3m representing an unrealised fair value gain to the Group of £32.5m.

Oxford Nanopore, which has designed and sells the world's only portable DNA/RNA sequencer, raised the funds to help expand its commercial operations across a range of territories.

The portable MinION DNA sequencing technology, which was based on the science of Professor Hagan Bayley of the University of Oxford, recently completed its own sequencing of a human genome, which analysts said had opened up the human genome to analysis using the platform, increasing its relevance to a greater breadth of scientists at a much more cost-effective level.

The latest found of investment lifts the total funds raised by Oxford Nanopore since its formation in 2005 to £351m.