KKR Invests In DNA Writing Tech Replay As Private Equity Pushes Into Healthcare

Replay, a genome writing company reprogramming biology by writing and delivering big DNA, announced its launch with $55 million in seed financing.
The round was led by KKR & Co Inc KKR and OMX Ventures, with additional participation from ARTIS Ventures and Lansdowne Partners, SALT, DeciBio Ventures, and Axial.
Private equity interest in early-stage biotech companies comes despite what is often a decade-long wait for revenue as technologies are developed, noted the Financial Times.
Financial Times added that PE firms, including EQT, Carlyle Group Inc CG, and Abingworth have all recently bought or taken stakes in early-stage venture capital firms specializing in life sciences.
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"We think there is great fundamental life science worldwide, especially after Covid. We’d like to use both the financial and human strengths of KKR and invest behind that,” said Kugan Sathiyanandarajah, managing director at KKR and a board member at Replay.
The company said it had identified three key challenges that it is working on: Increased payload capacity, the need for an off-the-shelf, low-cost scalable, and extensively genomic engineered cell therapy platform, and lastly, the ability to assemble big DNA.
Price Action: KKR shares closed lower by 2.14% at $51.33 on Friday.