Nabsys Gets $3 Million in State Funds to Support 243 Jobs, Seeking More Than $1M More

Nabsys Gets $3 Million in State Funds to Support 243 Jobs, Seeking More Than $1M More

 

 

 

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

This week, the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation approved incentives for Nabsys for a little more than $3 million to underwrite 243 net new jobs. Nabsys is an electronic genome-mapping company and is based in Providence. The company is homegrown and has had an unlikely path to growth.

The funding comes in the form of tax credits under the Rhode Island Qualified Jobs Incentive Act.

Under the incentive, companies like Nabsys that create new positions or relocate jobs to the state can receive redeemable tax credits for up to 10 years, with credits of up to $7,500 per job per year.

If they don’t create the jobs, they do not receive the incentives.

According to the company, the median salary of these new jobs is $150,000.

The company further claims that the net new jobs created could be as high as 350 to 500 positions.

Governor Dan McKee chairs the Commerce Corporation board and pushed forward on the financing plan.

 

Not the Only Incentives Nabsys Is Seeking

In addition to the Qualified Jobs Incentive, the company is also seeking $1 million from the state’s Life Science group and another $400,000 from the 195 Commission.

Those dollars would help support the buildout of 30,000 square feet in 225 Dyers Street — another State-sponsored project in the 195 District.

In August of 2024, Hitachi High-Tech Corporation bought Nabsys.

 

Multiple Pivots

Hitachi's purchase came after two major transformations.

Nabsys is one of Rhode Island's few homegrown tech-firm success stories, and it has undergone multiple transformations.

Hitachi High-Tech first invested in and formed an alliance with Nabsys in 2019 to "fully realize the promise of genomics and improve human health through a scalable platform capable of interrogating structural variants (SVs)."

According to the company, through the support of Hitachi High-Tech, Nabsys has entered into a commercialization phase with the “OhmX Analyzer,” an electronic genome mapping platform for high-resolution SV analysis. By making Nabsys a consolidated subsidiary, Hitachi High-Tech group aims to accelerate the adoption of OhmX, and envisions the technology will substantially evolve to address critical diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic research gaps while promising to strengthen its molecular diagnostics business as part of its mission to create a society without fear of cancer and rare disease.

 

Crash and Burn

In 2015, GoLocal broke the story that Nabsys had shuttered. “Providence-based startup Nabsys -- who had raised over $40 million and was considered a rising rock star in the genome-mapping world -- has closed its downtown office.”

Rhode Islanders and former U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s then-venture capital firm lost millions. Rhode Island taxpayers also lost substantial funds via an investment through the Slater Fund.

In those early years, the company was able to secure win after win of venture and equity funding, but it was all for not. The company closed its doors.

Then, the unlikely took place: after the crash, founder Barrett Bready bought the company back for “pennies on the dollar.”