Geneva , Switzerland , September 6, 2005 - SpinX Technologies, a privately held provider of innovative technology to perform biological assays, today announced it has secured €10 million in a Series B financing. The round was led by Bio Fund Management, with equal participation from seed and Series A investor Index Ventures, as well as from Auriga Partners and DFJ ePlanet Ventures. The CERN Pension Fund also participated in the financing. The funds raised will support the further development and initial commercialization of SpinX's "programmable microfluidics" platform to perform biological assays.

"We are delighted with the confidence placed in us by the new investors and by the unwavering support from our existing investor for our mission of transforming the instrumentation for biological assays," said Bart Van de Vyver, Founder of SpinX and Head of Corporate Development. The SpinX technology integrates assay preparation and readout in a single bench-top device, enabling greatly increased flexibility of experiment design. By dramatically reducing the manual work involved in setting up and performing biological assays, the technology allows scientists to concentrate on their research and healthcare practitioners to concentrate on their patients.

"Our technology is surprisingly simple," said Piero Zucchelli, Founder of SpinX and Head of Research and Product Development. "It is entirely based on off-the-shelf components and technologies. The main challenge in developing the platform was the integration of very diverse components - something we are used to dealing with from our days at CERN. At SpinX, the biology and chemistry adds another dimension, and we've overcome this challenge only thanks to the very diverse and committed team we have."

"Having served on the SpinX Board of Directors since the company was created, the team's innovation continues to amaze me," said Thierry Jean, Founder and CEO of CEREP. "Each time a possible limitation of the technology is identified, they manage to swiftly find a solution which is both elegant and innovative. An example of this resourcefulness is the way in which they figured out how to leverage existing micro titre plate infrastructure to load the SpinX microfluidic cards, eliminating a compatibility problem which has prevented broad adoption of other microfluidic technologies."

"What attracted me to the SpinX technology was the potential I saw for a generic front-end to any type of biological assay," said Sam Eletr, co-founder and acting CEO of Population Genetics Ltd and co-founder and former CEO of Applied Biosystems. "Since I joined the SpinX Board of Directors, that potential for the technology to become as ubiquitous as a pipettor has only become more clear. Applications for the technology are legion - from drug screening to genetic testing and clinical diagnostics - and one of the challenges will be to choose which of these opportunities to address first."

As part of the financing, Seppo Mäkinen, Senior Partner of Bio Fund Management, and Philippe Peltier, Partner of Auriga Partners, will become Directors of SpinX. Mir Imran, founder of Cardiac Pathways and of Percusurge, will represent DFJ ePlanet on the Board. Richard Rimer, Partner of Index Ventures, and Giuseppe Zocco , General Partner of Index Ventures, will continue to serve on the SpinX Board of Directors.

"We rarely invest directly in privately held companies, but we are pleased to invest in SpinX alongside a committed group of top-tier venture capital funds," explained Christian Cuenoud, Administrator for the CERN Pension Fund. "The founders' background at CERN - where they performed fundamental research for many years - obviously played a role as well."

"Two years ago, the partnership took a bet on the founding team because of their vision for microfluidics and the unique angle they were coming at biology from," said Richard Rimer, Partner at Index Ventures. "We worked together with Piero and Bart to build an IP position, identify initial product opportunities and develop a working prototype. This financing is great validation of the VC model and our approach to back entrepreneurs from the get-go."

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NOTES FOR THE EDITOR

About SpinX Technologies
For more information, visit www.spinx-technologies.com

About Bio Fund Management
Bio Fund Management Oy Ltd, with offices in Helsinki and Copenhagen, is one of the leading European venture capital management companies investing solely in the life sciences. The main focus includes pharmaceuticals, medical technologies, nutrition and environmental technologies. Bio Fund has a global investment scope and a focus on Europe.
For more information, visit www.biofund.fi

About Index Ventures
Index Ventures is a venture capital fund dedicated to helping top entrepreneurial teams build their companies into global leaders. Index proactively seeks out companies that are committed to solving real problems with a novel approach. Managing €750 million in capital, the Index team has become a major player on the VC world stage with an unrivalled network in Europe, as well as in the US. The firm has offices in Geneva, London and Jersey and focuses its investment activity primarily on Europe and Israel.
For more information, visit www.indexventures.com

About Auriga Partners
Auriga Partners is an independent venture capital firm. Based in Paris, it invests in information technologies and life sciences, in innovative high potential ventures, and in seed or early development stages – in Europe, North America and Israel. Auriga Partners manages three funds representing a total of more than €198 million. As well as investing, Auriga Partners brings its know-how in developing and consolidating executive teams, organizing companies, broadening their networks and forming strategic and corporate partnerships.
For more information, visit www.aurigapartners.com

About DFJ ePlanet Ventures
DFJ ePlanet Ventures is a premier, global venture capital firm, founded in 1999 by Asad Jamal in partnership with Draper Fisher Jurvetson, to capitalize on the growing trend towards globalization. With over $650 million under management, DFJ ePlanet seeks to provide superior returns to its investors through strategic investments in early- and late-stage information technology, consumer Internet, medical device, wireless and other technology companies globally. DFJ ePlanet has offices in Redwood City, California, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, London, Tokyo, and Tel Aviv.
For more information, visit www.dfjeplanet.com

About CERN Pension Fund
Based in Geneva, CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research and development of novel instrumentation, with more than 2500 employees. The CERN Pension Fund administers the pension scheme for employees of CERN and of ESO, the European Space Observatory. The fund has around 4 billion Swiss francs in assets under management, across a diverse portfolio of cash, bonds, equities, and real estate. Equity investment is mostly in the form of funds and funds-of-funds, with direct investments made only in exceptional cases.
For more information, visit pensions.web.cern.ch