Plum Alley invests in sought-after $23M Series A round for CRISPR-based disease detection platform
NEW YORK (PRWEB) August 08, 2018 -- Plum Alley Investments, an innovative platform providing new investors, especially women, access to invest in disruptive technology and healthcare companies, has invested in a sought-after $23 million Series A round for Mammoth Biosciences as it comes out of stealth mode.
CRISPR Technology and Mammoth Biosciences
The biotech company is bringing to market the latest CRISPR innovations in partnership with legendary Dr. Jennifer Doudna and members of the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) team. Plum Alley’s relationship with Mammoth grew out of their recent collaboration with IGI and Dr. Doudna’s team on InsideView™, a private session for Plum Alley’s elite members. Plum Alley’s recent InsideView™ provided access to IGI and an in-depth experience to learn about the CRISPR technology and applications across biomedicine, healthcare, agriculture, biofuel, and other industries.
While the discovery of CRISPR has led to an expanding field of gene editing and modification companies focused on therapeutics, Mammoth Biosciences is using the technology’s scientific and technological breakthrough for diagnostics, and has invented new ways to test and detect using CRISPR’s search functionality. As explained by Mammoth Co-founder and CTO Ashley Tehranchi, “We leverage CRISPR as a search engine, using a guide RNA to direct a CRISPR protein to search for any specific DNA or RNA sequence. That process provides a world of utility across fields like forensic, genotyping, oncology, infectious disease, agriculture and even oil and gas industries.”
Mammoth Series A Investors
The current round was led by Mayfield with participation from NFX, 8VC, DHVC, Plum Alley, alongside high profile individual investors including Apple’s Tim Cook. Plum Alley’s syndicate invested nearly $1.5 million, 75% of the amount coming from women investors who would not have had the access or opportunity otherwise to invest. The Plum Alley syndicate is comprised of both women and men who bring value beyond their money, by nature of their positions as Directors of public company boards, as corporate executives, or non-profit board members.
Trevor Martin, Co-founder and CEO said, “Plum Alley’s participation in our raise was important to us as we selected our investors. Their members bring tremendous strategic value to Mammoth as we consider strong and additive partners to drive our commercial access. With a founding team of highly credentialed women and men, we know deep expertise and talent resides in a diverse and inclusive pool, and we appreciate investors that reflect those values.”
Plum Alley’s funding and strategic support will help Mammoth develop the platform that also allows partners access and to search for their own biomarkers. Partnerships are central to Mammoth’s business, and the company aims to make its CRISPR-powered search engine the platform of choice for disease detection. Mammoth aims to democratize disease detection with an easy and affordable test that allows fast, simultaneous detection of multiple conditions, in real time - which has the potential to significantly impact healthcare accessibility both domestically and in the developing world. Beyond healthcare, the platform has applications across industries, with the team keeping a keen eye on partnerships in the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries.
Mammoth is led by two Stanford PhDs, Trevor Martin (CEO) and Ashley Tehranchi (CTO), and two Berkeley PhDs, Lucas Harrington (Chief Discovery Officer) and Janice Chen (Chief Research Officer). Dr. Jennifer Doudna is also a Mammoth Co-founder and chair of the company’s advisory board.
Shanice Graves, Plum Alley, https://plumalley.co, +1 347-348-7901, [email protected]
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