Baird Venture Partners officially exits investment in NimbleGen

Madison, Wis. - Baird Venture Partners, a venture capital fund of Baird Private Equity, has successfully exited its investment in the Madison-based NimbleGen Systems, a maker of high-density DNA microarrays used in pharmaceutical research, through NimbleGen's sale to Roche.

Roche, the Basel, Switzerland-based pharmaceutical and diagnostic company, has agreed to purchase NimbleGen for $272.5 million. The announcement by Baird Venture Partners marks the completion of the transaction and the end of what Baird officials called a highly productive partnership.

BVP first invested in NimbleGen in 2001 and has maintained an active role on the company's board of directors since that initial investment out of the BVP I fund. The venture capital firm also co-led a subsequent financing for the company in 2004.

The sale of NimbleGen followed the initial public offerings of two BVP portfolio companies - HireRight and TomoTherapy, both of which now are traded on the NASDAQ Stock Market.

As a result of the Roche acquisition, NimbleGen will return a “meaningful percentage” of capital to BVP's Fund I investors, according to Pete Shagory, a partner in BVP. Shagory said Roche is in an ideal position to accelerate the adoption of NimbleGen's high-definition genomics technology in the global market. The company's DNA microarrays are high-throughput research tools that provide scientists with a way to extract and integrate complex genomic data.

Related stories

• NimbleGen to discontinue IPO after Roche's $272.5 million acquisition

• Tom Still: Wisconsin IPOs are a harbinger of growing tech economy

• IPO-bound NimbleGen traveling in fast company

• Visions: Carbone bullish on Wisconsin venture capital

• TomoTherapy raises $223 million in IPO