10x Genomics


10x Genomics is an American biotechnology company that designs and manufactures gene sequencing technology used in scientific research. It was founded in 2012 by Serge Saxonov, Ben Hindson, and Kevin Ness.
Customers include research centers, academic institutions, clinical research organizations and biotechnology companies. MIT and Harvard University's Broad Institute, University of Toronto's Princess Margaret Genomics Centre, and researchers from Tsinghua University in Beijing are amongst the organizations which currently use 10x Genomics designed products.
10x Genomics had their IPO on September 11, 2019, selling 11.5M shares for $39.00 each. Currently, they have 20.9M shares outstanding and a market capitalization of $7.7B. Before coming public, 10X Genomics had raised $243 million from investors including Venrock, Softbank, and Meritech Capital. In January 2019, since its Series D funding round, the company was valued at $1.28 billion.
In October 2018, 10x Genomics was recognized as the fastest growing private company in the Bay Area by the San Francisco Business Times. CNBC also described it as "one of the best-funded enterprises in Silicon Valley at the intersection of biology and technology." In November 2018, 10x Genomics announced expansion plans including opening a manufacturing facility in Pleasanton, California in early 2019.
In 2019, the company was named to the Inc. 5000, a list of the fastest growing privately held companies in the United States, at number 69. 10x Genomics announced its initial public offering on September 12, 2019, raising $390M.

History

10x Genomics was founded in 2012 by Serge Saxonov, Ben Hindson and Kevin Ness to create advanced testing equipment for use in cellular biology. Prior to starting the company, Saxonov was the founding architect, and director of research and development at 23andMe. Ness left 10x Genomics in December 2016 and in 2018, Justin McAnear, Tesla's former finance chief joined the company as CFO.
In August 2018 the company announced its first acquisition, Epinomics, a biotechnology company focused on the development of new techniques for epigenetics research. Four months later, 10x Genomics acquired Spatial Transcriptomics, a biotechnology company working in the field of spatial genomics.
The company has reported significant growth since its founding with revenues of $3.32 million in 2015, $27.48 million in 2016, $71.18 million in 2017 and $145 million in 2018.

Products

GemCode: In 2015, 10x Genomics released GemCode genomics platform, its DNA sequencing technology. The product, which includes an instrument, chemistry kit, and informatics software, partitions DNA samples into 'gems' through a custom microfluidic system. According to Bio-IT World "the DNA in each gem can then be fragmented into short-read libraries suitable for Illumina sequencing, with each fragment receiving a 14-base molecular barcode unique to its gem of origin."
Chromium System: 10x Genomics range of Chromium System solutions is an upgraded DNA sequencing technology. Per VentureBeat, the system "leverages a combination of microfluidics, chemistry, and bioinformatics to help geneticists perform deep cellular analyses."
Chromium Controller: The company began selling its Chromium Controller tools in 2016. According to Bio-IT World, "chromium segregates samples into individual microwells, where DNA in each well can be labeled with a unique barcode sequence. The process recovers information that is normally lost when scientists cut DNA into short fragments as part of sample preparation for the leading DNA sequencers."
The company has also developed a Chromium Single Cell CNV Solution, which can be used for the rapid and massively parallel profiling of single-cell genomes.

Arbitration and lawsuit

Saxonov, Hindson, and Ness worked together at Quantalife prior to its acquisition by Bio-Rad in 2011 and left the subsequent year to launch 10x Genomics. In 2014 an arbitration dispute was brought against the three cofounders by Bio-Rad, claiming they had breached obligations they allegedly owed to Bio-Rad after it acquired Quantalife. In 2015 an arbitrator determined that the founders of 10x Genomics had not breached their obligation to Bio-Rad when they left the company and denied its claims.
In November 2018, a Delaware jury found that 10x Genomics infringed on several University of Chicago patents which were exclusively licensed to Bio-Rad. The company said they will appeal the decision and order to pay $24 million to Bio-Rad.