Saturday, September 27, 2025
Techgist Africa | Africa Leading Tech News, Reviews and Tips
  • News
    • World News
    • World Regional News
    • News – East Africa
    • News – West Africa
    • News – South Africa
    • News – Middle East And North Africa
  • The Big 5
  • Specials
  • Opportunities
  • Innovators
  • Events
  • Videos
  • Contact
No Result
View All Result
Techgist Africa | Africa Leading Tech News, Reviews and Tips
  • News
    • World News
    • World Regional News
    • News – East Africa
    • News – West Africa
    • News – South Africa
    • News – Middle East And North Africa
  • The Big 5
  • Specials
  • Opportunities
  • Innovators
  • Events
  • Videos
  • Contact
No Result
View All Result
Techgist Africa | Africa Leading Tech News, Reviews and Tips
No Result
View All Result
Home Africa

54gene Plans to Build Africa’s First Biobank with Acquired $4.5 million Seed Round

Tech Gist Africa by Tech Gist Africa
07/03/2019
in Africa, Africa News, News
0 0
0
54Gene Africa

Photocredit: jbkluste.com

0
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Africa-focused healthcare and Artificial Intelligence startup, 54gene has raised $4.5 million seed round from Y Combinator, Better Ventures, Fifty Years, KdT Ventures, Hack VC, TechHammer, Pioneer Fund, amongst others. They plan to use it to build a pan-African Biobank for research and development of the African genome (DNA).

54gene intends to build the world’s first Africa-focused biobank, install electronic data capturing systems in Nigerian hospitals and expand across the continent. Through a partnership with pharmaceutical companies, they will drive cutting edge research in African genomics. They plan to secure 40,000 biobank samples by the end of the year in collaboration with research institutes on the continent.

Genomics is the study of the collective characterization and quantification of an organism’s genetic material. The CEO of 54gene, Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong founded the startup in January 2019 to meet the global demand for a pan-African biobank. He discovered that 90% of genetic research materials were of Caucasian origin. Surprisingly, only 2% were from Africa, even though Africans are more genetically diverse than all other races. 

Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong decided that building research centers for studying the African genome dataset could lead to the identification of diagnostics and discoveries of new drugs for people across all races. In a talk with Techcrunch, Dr. Abasi spoke passionately on his belief that African genetic data holds the key to unlocking medical discoveries. A typical example he cited was the Romosozumab osteoporosis drug discovered by investigating a genetic mutation in South African Afrikaner patients.

The 54 in the name 54gene represents the number of countries in Africa which comprise of more than 2000 diverse ethnic groups. As a result of this diversity, many genetic variations could be found in Africa. Following a successful pilot phase in three notable teaching hospitals in Nigeria, 54gene is ready to scale. The 6 months old Y Combinator alumnus will leverage its presence in San Francisco and Lagos to continually collect materials for research.

 

More on TechGist Africa:

  • Telkom Switches to Vodacom for Roaming Services, abandons MTN
  • Kwik Delivery Launches on-demand Delivery Service in Lagos
  • President Trump Finally Permits the US to Trade with Huawei again
  • NITDA Issues Nigerian Government Officials Ultimatum Over Use of Social Media Regulations
  • Google Digital Skills for Africa Launched in Aba, Eastern Nigeria
ShareTweet
Plugin Install : Subscribe Push Notification need OneSignal plugin to be installed.
Tech Gist Africa

Tech Gist Africa

Tech Gist Africa is a leading online technology and digital media outlet, dedicated to providing latest tech news, product launch, startup news across Africa and sharing simple social media and digital marketing tips for startups, entrepreneurs and business owners.

Related Posts

Rulebase
Funding

Rulebase Secures $2.1M Pre-Seed Funding to Revolutionize Fintech Back-Office Automation

by Tech Gist Africa
09/26/2025
0

Rulebase, a Y Combinator-backed fintech startup, has raised $2.1 million in pre-seed funding to automate back-office operations in financial services....

Read more
SunCulture Kenya

SunCulture, a Kenyan climate-tech startup has secured a $5 million funding

09/26/2025
AGF Visa Foundation

AGF and Visa Foundation Unveil $2M Fund for Women Entrepreneurs in Africa

09/26/2025
Justyol Morocco

Justyol, a Moroccan e-commerce startup has raised $1 million in funding

09/26/2025
Mavryk Network UAE

Mavryk Network Secures $10M to Revolutionize UAE Real Estate with Blockchain Tokenization

09/26/2025
Next Post
Rent Small small

Nigeria’s Rent Small Small Forms Latest Partnership, Set to Extend Service Offerings

Gebeya

Ethiopian Edtech Firm Gebeya to Expand to Senegal

The bigFive Daily

54gene Plans to Build Africa’s First Biobank with Acquired $4.5 million Seed Round, Telkom Switches to Vodacom for Roaming Services, abandons MTN and More

No Result
View All Result

The Big 5

Food Security

How Technology is Advancing Global Food Security and Reducing Hunger

by Tech Gist Africa
09/26/2025
0

...

Nvidia Abu Dhabi Robotics Lab

Nvidia and Abu Dhabi Institute Launch Middle East’s First AI & Robotics Lab

by Tech Gist Africa
09/26/2025
0

...

MultiChoice

Canal+ has officially completed its $3.17 billion acquisition of South Africa’s MultiChoice Group

by Tech Gist Africa
09/26/2025
0

...

216 Capital & Plug and Play Accelerator

216 Capital & Plug and Play Launch Tunisian Accelerator to Bridge Local Startups to Global Stage

by Tech Gist Africa
09/26/2025
0

...

Funding

Groundbreaking UK Tender Aims to Map East Africa’s Start-Up Financing Landscape

by Tech Gist Africa
09/26/2025
0

...

TGA

  • About us
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact

TGA

  • About us
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact

AFRICA

  • Made In Africa
  • People
    • Tech Leaders
    • Innovator of the Week
  • Start-Up Spotlight

NEWS

  • Africa News
  • World News

THE BIG 5

  • Big 5 Daily
  • Weekly News Roundup

SPECIALS

  • Guest Articles
  • How Tos
  • Op-Eds
  • Reviews
  • Tech Leaders
  • Tips

VIDEOS

  • Interviews
  • Tech Videos

TGA

  • About us
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact

AFRICA

  • Made In Africa
  • People
    • Tech Leaders
    • Innovator of the Week
  • Start-Up Spotlight

NEWS

  • Africa News
  • World News

THE BIG 5

  • Big 5 Daily
  • Weekly News Roundup

SPECIALS

  • Guest Articles
  • How Tos
  • Op-Eds
  • Reviews
  • Tech Leaders
  • Tips

VIDEOS

  • Interviews
  • Tech Videos

Copyright © 2020 Techgistafrica. All Rights Reserved

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • World News
    • World Regional News
    • News – East Africa
    • News – West Africa
    • News – South Africa
    • News – Middle East And North Africa
  • The Big 5
  • Specials
  • Opportunities
  • Innovators
  • Events
  • Videos
  • Contact

Copyright © 2019 TECHGISTAFRICA. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.