The UK company working for the development of a portable gene sequencer, Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd, had raised GBP40 million or USD64 million from investors located in the United States and in Europe.

The funds raised would be utilized to expand the sales and manufacturing capacity of the company, Part of it would also be used for research and development as well as other enterprise purposes such as protection of intellectual property, according to a statement from the firm's Oxford, England headquarters.

The new shareholders in the company are Odey Asset Management, the hedge fund established by Crispin Odey. Other existing investors, who have previously raised GBP105 million, are IP Group Plc, Illumina Inc, Invesco Perpetual and Lansdowne Partners. The other investors in the company include individual shareholders, such as company managers and employees who participate through their stock options.

Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd CEO Gordon Sanghera previously said that the company would begin to sell its products by the end of 2012. Since that fateful announcement last year, the company had faced delay after delay as the company was forced to redesign a sensor that was not performing up to standard.