San Diego start-up Edico Genome raises $22M from Dell tech fund – The San Diego Union-Tribune

San Diegos Edico Genome, which makes a fast processing platform for next generation gene sequencing, said Tuesday that it has raised $22 million in a second round of venture capital funding led by Dell Technologies Capital.

Though it has been quietly investing in startups for a couple of years, Dell Technologies Capital revealed its $100 million start-up fund on Monday after previously operating in stealth mode.

Along with Dell Technologies, existing Edico Genome investors, including Qualcomm Ventures, Axon Ventures and Greg Lucier, former head of Life Technologies, also participated.

Edico launched its fast data processor, called Dragen, three years ago. The company says customers include some of the top clinical and academic research institutions and high-throughput sequencing centers in the world. To date, these customers have processed more than 12 petabytes of data using Dragen. A petabyte equals 1 million gigabytes.

"Edico's Dragen Bio-IT Processor is truly the pioneer in the use of a processor -- specifically a field-programmable gate array -- to tackle big data in genomics," said Gregg Adkin, managing director of Dell Technologies Capital, in a statement. And with precision medicine still only in its infancy, the applications and opportunities are increasing exponentially."

Edico, a graduate of the EvoNexus start-up incubator program in San Diego, and Dells EMC division have worked together to combine rapid analysis with data storage of next-generation gene sequencing information.

"Dell's backing will help enable the Dragen platform to radically change healthcare by unlocking data to reveal new insight into diseases, speed critical diagnoses and guide precision medicine," said Pieter van Rooyen, chief executive officer of Edico Genome, in a statement.

mike.freeman@sduniontribune.com;

Twitter:@TechDiego

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San Diego start-up Edico Genome raises $22M from Dell tech fund - The San Diego Union-Tribune