Senzo Secures a $2mm Pre-Series A Financing Led by Bioadvance to Progress Its Breakthrough Lateral Flow Diagnostic Testing Platform for Covid-19, Flu A/B, Tuberculosis, HIV
Funds will be used to bring the Amplified Lateral Flow (ALF) COVID-19 at-home rapid test through regulatory approval and to market, increase manufacturing capabilities, and advance the development of a range of new tests to significantly improve the diagnosis of the world's most prevalent and deadly diseases
PHILADELPHIA, July 21, 2022 (Newswire.com) - Senzo, a life sciences company developing high accuracy, low-cost point-of-care diagnostic technologies, today announced a $2 million equity funding round led by BioAdvance, a leading life science venture capital firm. Wellness Coaches, a national provider of health and wellness solutions, including point-of-care diagnostics testing to public and private organizations, also participated in the round.
Senzo recently announced very promising results from a blinded 3rd-party study demonstrating that its revolutionary Amplified Lateral Flow (ALF) COVID-19 antigen test was 100% accurate in concordance with PCR testing, even in cases with very low viral loads, which allows for substantially better and earlier detection of virus compared to current lateral flow tests. Senzo is also developing the industry's first high-accuracy lateral flow tests for at-home and professional use for applications such as Influenza, HIV, Tuberculosis, Strep, Hepatitis C, Sexually Transmitted Infections, and many others. These diseases are usually diagnosed in central laboratories, creating a testing process that is often slow, expensive, and cumbersome, resulting in sub-optimal care and economics. Senzo's technology will allow these tests to be done at home or at the point-of-care, with results in under 10 minutes, at a fraction of today's cost.
"Our vision at Senzo is clear: to make the diagnosis of disease as fast, simple, inexpensive, and accurate as taking a temperature or blood pressure reading," said Jeremy Stackawitz, CEO of Senzo. "The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the potential for accurate point-of-care diagnostics. Our ALF technology converts that potential to reality in myriad applications where more and earlier diagnosis results in better patient outcomes, and more timely and cost-effective patient care."
Regarding the investment, Dr. Gregory Harriman, Partner at BioAdvance, said "We are very excited to be leading this investment in Senzo. We invest in promising life science companies that have technologies with the potential to significantly improve human health. Senzo's technology offers to fundamentally advance early diagnosis and intervention for important diseases."
Kristopher Wood, President of Wellness Coaches, added "We understand the importance and benefits of high-accuracy, convenient, cost-effective diagnostic testing and look forward to bringing Senzo tests to our corporate and private partners to help enable convenient, accurate, and cost-effective health solutions for our clients and their populations."
In addition to bringing products to market on its own, Senzo is pursuing several industry partnerships across R&D, manufacturing and commercialization to better facilitate and finance the adoption of the ALF platform for multiple new applications.
About Senzo:
Senzo is an in vitro diagnostics company developing innovative, accurate, and accessible testing products. Senzo was founded with the vision of utilizing novel technologies, with a focus on enhanced sensitivity, to create mobile, point-of-care and self-testing products and devices with the ability to accurately, quickly, and cost-effectively conduct testing where healthcare professionals and patients need it most. Senzo is creating game-changing products and systems which bring testing to the patient, eliminating the need for the current slow, expensive central-lab testing paradigms. With insights generated at the point of care, patients can make better decisions faster, and healthcare professionals can identify life-threatening diseases at an earlier stage, improving treatment outcomes and saving lives.
About BioAdvance:
BioAdvance is an early-stage life sciences fund with a focus in the mid-Atlantic region, investing up to $1.5 million initially and up to $5 million over the lifetime of companies with the potential to significantly improve human health. Since making its first investment in 2003, BioAdvance has committed more than $50 million in funding to approximately 100 companies that have developed more than 160 products in diagnostic, therapeutic, medtech, research tools and digital health sectors. BioAdvance's portfolio companies have leveraged $3.7 billion in subsequent capital, including proceeds from acquisitions. Eleven products have received FDA approval. For more information, please visit www.bioadvance.com.
About Wellness Coaches:
Wellness Coaches is one of the largest and most-experienced tech-enabled wellness, nutrition, clinical, and injury prevention service providers, utilizing both onsite and virtual expertise to help communities and organizations increase engagement, improve population health, mitigate safety risks, and reduce healthcare and workers' compensation costs. In addition, since the start of the pandemic, Wellness Coaches has delivered new COVID-19 solutions including, point-of-care and at-home rapid testing, vaccine administration and verification, nursing services, telehealth, and other capabilities designed to help employees return to work safely. For more information, please visit www.wcusa.com.
For more information, visit https://www.senzo.com.
Press Contact:
Jamie Diamond
541-441-4444
Source: Senzo