Abelino Lab Secures $18 Million Pre-IPO Investment

[Asia Economy Reporter Minji Lee] Avellino Lab (hereinafter Avellino), a global leader in the precision medicine field, announced on the 2nd that it has successfully raised $18 million in Pre-IPO (pre-initial public offering) investment.

This investment is structured as a convertible bond worth $18 million issued by Avellino, invested by an investment consortium jointly formed by Crystal Bioscience, a new technology business finance company, and Infinity Capital Partners, a private equity fund management firm. Domestic institutional investors such as Woori Bank, Shinhan Capital, M Capital, and SBI Savings Bank participated as investors in the investment consortium.

The investment funds will be used to build a vast and secure genetic database and develop complex solutions in the precision medicine field. Samsung Securities and Mirae Asset Securities are serving as the lead underwriters for the listing, which is scheduled for the second half of this year on KOSDAQ. Recently, Avellino passed the technical evaluation for KOSDAQ technology special listing smoothly by obtaining an A grade from both NICE D&B and Korea Enterprise Data (KED), designated professional evaluation agencies by the Korea Exchange.

Founded in Korea in 2008, Avellino started its business by providing genetic testing services for corneal dystrophy to patients undergoing vision correction surgeries such as LASIK and LASEK. In 2011, it opened a research center in Menlo Park, California, USA, and expanded its business to Japan, China, the United Kingdom, and other regions in 2015.

Avellino developed ‘Avagen,’ a genetic diagnostic solution based on next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology. This solution tests 75 genes related to keratoconus and over 2,000 gene variants related to corneal dystrophy, deriving a multi-gene risk score analysis.

Additionally, research is underway to expand the indications of existing genetic diagnostic kits to glaucoma and Fuchs’ corneal dystrophy, with plans to further expand business into dental and dermatological disease diagnostics. Alongside this, advanced gene editing technology is being developed to preserve normal genes while editing only mutated genes.

Furthermore, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Avellino developed the COVID-19 diagnostic test ‘AvellinoCov2,’ which received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2020 and is being supplied to the market.