Repositive Ltd raises £300k seed funding to launch genomic data discovery platform

Repositive Ltd, the spin-out of the charity DNAdigest, is building a platform where genomic scientists can make their research data sets discoverable to their peers and find other researchers working with similar datasets.

 

In their seed funding round, Repositive Ltd raised £200k of equity investment from angel investors in Cambridge and London and received additional £100k matched grant funding through the Big Venture Challenge.

Access to relevant genomic data is a growing problem for research in genetic diseases and cancer

Genetic research requires access to a large amount of data from both patients and healthy individuals in order to identify and validate genetic variants that are associated with disease. DNA sequencing datasets are increasing in size and complexity, making the data difficult to manage, and human genomics data poses additional challenges of data privacy and confidentiality. This often leads to data being siloed at individual institutions with a vast amount of datasets getting lost or not being re-used after the study findings have being published. Many genomic datasets are never used to their full potential because of the lack of mechanisms for easy discovery and secure access to the data. These datasets contain valuable information and have the huge potential to contribute to other research projects, thus saving time, money and, ultimately, patient lives.

The repositive.io platform enables genomic data discovery and data collaborations

The Repositive platform available at http://repositive.io provides a portal for exploring available genomic data, making datasets visible and accessible for initiating research collaborations. This will incentivise more research for cures of genetic diseases, which have previously been blocked by insufficient access to relevant data. Enabling access to valuable sources of data that otherwise remain hidden has the potential to speed up the research process and provide the evidence needed to generate statistically sound results. This will remove one of the most serious bottlenecks to progress in genomic medicine and will provide crucial foundations for finding cures for genetic diseases and cancer.

Fiona Nielsen, founder and CEO, said: “Our mission is to facilitate efficient and ethical data sharing for genomics research - a challenging problem which requires both technical solutions and cultural change. We are addressing both on the repositive.io platform by working closely with the research community to create the right incentives for our users to adapt best practices for ethical data sharing”.

Julie Devonshire, Director of Ventures at UnLtd who deliver the Big Venture Challenge added “Repositive are truly ground-breaking. They have the potential to benefit the lives of millions of people in the years to come through their innovative use of technology”

Core features of the repositive.io platform include data discovery of relevant genomic datasets, registration of datasets and collaboration on data projects and it will be available for free for all registered users. The Repositive team cordially invites you to sign up for free beta testing on http://repositive.io

Repositive Ltd is co-located with DNAdigest at the Future Business Centre Cambridge as part of the  Social Incubator East. Repositive Ltd won the support of the Wayra UnLtd startup academy for social ventures in 2013 and was selected as a winner of the Big Venture Challenge 2014.



Repositive Ltd (formerly Nucleobase Ltd)
Repositive Ltd was spun out of the charity DNAdigest in August 2014 to develop Open Source platforms to support efficient data access and secure knowledge sharing for genomics research. The Repositive social mission and the team behind Repositive are presented at: http://repositive.io

About the Big Venture Challenge
The Big Venture Challenge supports ambitious entrepreneurs with access to business support, powerful connections and match funding to help them raise investment and deliver social impact at scale.
For more information on the programme and the 2014 winners see https://unltd.org.uk/bvc/bvc-winners-2014-2/

About the Wayra UnLtd startup academy
A partnership between UnLtd, the world's largest supporter of social entrepreneurs, and Wayra, Telefonica's global tech start-up accelerator programme. 50% funded by the UK Government. For more information see http://wayra.org/unltd/

About the Social Incubator East
Social Incubator East is an intensive support programme for people with an ambition to set up or grow a business dedicated to making positive social impact.
For more information see http://www.socialincubatoreast.org.uk/

About the Future Business Centre
The Future Business Centre in Cambridge is a purpose-built hub for social and environmental enterprises. Through the Future Business Centre, Allia provides support for social ventures at every stage of development.
For more information see http://allia.org.uk/what-we-do/future-business-centre/

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For further information, please contact Fiona Nielsen, founder and CEO of Repositive Ltd
Phone: 07427512155
Email: fiona@repositive.io

 
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