Visby Medical announced today that it added $35 million to an expanded, oversubscribed Series E financing round.
San Jose, California–based Visby plans to use the additional investment, which brings its Series E to $135 million in total, to scale production capacity, expand its product menu to include respiratory health tests and anti-microbial resistance panels and to bring PCR diagnostics to consumers at home.
The company develops PCR diagnostic technology designed to address the significant rise in infectious diseases. Its FDA-cleared sexual health click test has already been launched in the U.S. in settings such as urgent care and women’s health clinics to detect gonorrhea, chlamydia and trichomonas via self-collected vaginal swabs and deliver results in less than 30 minutes, eliminating the need for presumptive treatment.
According to a news release, Lightrock led the funding round, joining existing Series E investors including John Doerr, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, ND Capital, Artiman Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital, Blue Water Life Science Advisors and J Ventures.
“At Visby Medical, we are revolutionizing patient care by developing diagnostics that healthcare providers can use to test for any infection at anytime, anywhere,” Visby Medical founder and CEO Adam de la Zerda said in the release. “Especially during these times of market slowdown, our investors have shown significant confidence in Visby’s innovative technology and mission. This funding will enable us to further our goal to provide the world’s first instrument-free handheld PCR platform to accurately and rapidly test for a variety of serious infections to anyone who needs it.”
Earlier this year, Visby executed an option in a contract from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) on the additional $25.5 million for the development and validation of the at-home combination test. The incremental funding follows the initial contract, which was awarded in February 2021.
The company received FDA emergency use authorization (EUA) for the point-of-care use of its COVID-19 diagnostic in February 2021.
