Hong Kong – K&L Gates has advised leading global genetics and diagnostic health testing company Prenetics on its US$15 million financing round. The round was led by Apis Insurtech Fund I, a venture fund managed by Apis Partners LLP, a global investment manager specializing in investments in sustainable early to growth stage businesses. Existing investor Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund also participated in the round. The current round brings the total funds raised by Prenetics to more than US$60 million since its inception in 2014. 

K&L Gates Hong Kong corporate partner William Ho, who led the team that advised Prenetics,  stated: “We are thrilled to be a part of the Prenetics growth story. This transaction showcases our ability to assist clients during every stage of their development and to help them make their commercial objectives a reality, even in competitive markets and during volatile times.”

Danny Yeung, co-founder and Group CEO of Prenetics, commented: “K&L Gates has provided Prenetics with great legal support for this transaction.  As a rapidly growing company, we rely on their counsel for our most important matters, including financings, acquisitions, and other operational matters as they arise.”

In Q4 of 2020, Prenetics plans to launch a low-cost rapid COVID-19 nucleic acid test that is expected to be highly scalable to enable frequent testing and provide results within 30 minutes with no laboratory required. Prenetics is in talks with multiple governments globally about making the test widely available.

Prenetics is operational in 10 countries and has a team of more than 200 employees. It was the only Hong Kong laboratory appointed by the Hong Kong government in the first phase of community COVID-19 testing across high-risk clusters, and the only provider selected by the English Premier League to help re-start the football season by providing 40,000 COVID-19 tests for all 20 teams. 

Assisting William Ho on the Hong Kong team advising Prenetics were Eva Ying (associate), Yuan Gao (foreign legal consultant), Ellie Yip (trainee solicitor), and Chantelle Lui (trainee solicitor).