Eagle Genomics has landed a prestigious co-sell partnership with Microsoft for their knowledge discovery platform. The deal will see the UKI2S-supported company gain access to global enterprise leaders through the Microsoft sales team. The announcement comes on the back of the company’s successful graduation from the Microsoft ScaleUp programme, previously known as the Microsoft Accelerator. The programme is designed to help Series A startups and provides access to sales, marketing and technical support.
Eagle Genomics’ platform, e, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse vast amounts of genomic data. This has led the company to target the burgeoning field of microbiome research. The microbiome represents the genomes of all the microbes that live on and within something – be it a human, the subway or a field of corn. To put the importance of data management in perspective, the human gut microbiome contains several hundred species of bacteria. Each possess their own genomes. It’s possible to read their DNA sequences thanks to next-generation gene sequencing technologies, but that has just moved the bottleneck further along to data analysis. Eagle Genomics’ software makes cataloguing, curating and searching these data far more manageable.
Eagle Genomics began its life in 2008 as a consulting and service provider. In 2013, the UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund (UKI2S) led the first £1 M investment round in the firm to fund their transition to a full-fledged software company. UKI2S has participated in all the subsequent funding rounds including a £1 M investment earlier this year. The company’s recent graduation from the Microsoft ScaleUp programme is a testament to how far they have developed.
The Microsoft ScaleUp programme differs from other accelerators, such as IndieBio, which focus more on new companies starting from scratch: instead, it focuses resources on helping established businesses grow faster.
Eagle Genomics has received additional support from Innovate UK, Angel CoFund, Angels in MedCity and others. Eagle Genomics is also supported by the University of Cambridge and is a recent alumnus of their SME Growth Challenge programme. Microbiome research and development is growing at a rapid pace worldwide with another Cambridge company, Microbiotica, leading the charge in the UK. Microbiotica announced a partnership with Genentech, a member of the Roche group, worth up to $534 M in June this year.