Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai Medical Center was among the people and entities pouring $35 million into diagnostics company Visby Medical for a financing round totaling more than $135 million.
Visby Medical said it plans to use the investment to scale its production capacity and expand into advanced respiratory tests and antimicrobial resistance panels, according to a June 29 news release. Founded in 2012, the company previously released a sexually transmitted disease test for women that provides results in less than 30 minutes.
"Especially during these times of market slowdown, our investors have shown significant confidence in Visby's innovative technology and mission," Visby Medical founder and CEO Adam de la Zerda, PhD, said in the release. "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."
The over-subscribed series E funding round was led by Lightrock and included venture capitalist John Doerr. Lightrock partner Ashish Puri said the company's diagnostics tool has the "potential to decentralize lab testing, producing major benefits for communities around the world and opening up access to affordable healthcare results," according to the release.